This is CBS I On The World. I'm John that's with Cliff May, the founder and president of

the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Just returned from his time in Israel where

the evenings on the Tel Aviv oceanfront are bombing and wonderful. At the same time,

there is a spirit in Israel that is frantic about decisions that are pending, reform decisions

that are pending about the Supreme Court in Israel and the Knesset in Israel, the Assembly

and the Prime Minister's office. I do not pretend to summarize it other than to say there

was a red line painted around the Supreme Court by the opponents of Mr. Netanyahu's reforms.

That red line was meant to be, do not touch the Supreme Court. That's as much sense as

I make right now, Cliff. This looks like politics. Did you understand it while you were

I certainly learned a lot about it with our endistitter, not a separate question. Israel has a very

odd political setup, always has had. You have a you have a unicameral parliament just to have

the Knesset. And at the head of that is the Prime Minister. So you don't have a separate executive

and legislative. You just have that. Now what you have as a check and balance in a way is the

judiciary, but it's a very odd judiciary because it has no it's self generating the Supreme Court

justices pick their successors. You have the attorney general and he is has he also is separate.

So you can have a member of the Knesset saying I would I'd like some legal advice from the

for and they'll say well we'll give you legal advice, but it won't be your legal advisor. We'll

tell you what to do. And the Supreme Court also has been able to not just say well this this law

we don't like they can say this policy we don't like and why because it's against the constitution

no because there's no constitution. No, they just have to say we find it unreasonable. And let me

make a point. Israel is a tiny country, land area, small land jibbuti population smaller than

Cairo, but it's very diverse. You've got 20% minorities mostly Arabs, mostly Muslims,

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