Welcome to the Dispatch Podcast.

I'm Adam, senior producer at the Dispatch, and today we're going to talk about the Israeli

Judicial Reform.

As you probably have read, hopefully on the morning Dispatch, Benjamin Netanyahu's government

in Israel is trying to advance laws to limit the power of the courts.

They say that this is an overdue correction, and necessary to restore the balance of powers.

While opponents who have taken to the streets in massive protests over the past few months,

say that this is actually an attempt to subvert democracy.

So I'm joined by Javi Gour, political analyst for the Times of Israel.

He is a fantastic journalist who I've been reading for over a decade.

And honestly, if you're looking for smart, anti-partisan coverage of Israeli politics,

you should really check out his writing.

He's going to give us some background on the Israeli system of government and how we got here,

but also insight into what's really animating this Israeli Cultural War.

We try to avoid getting too deep in the weeds, but at times it wasn't inevitable if only to show

just how different Israeli politics and culture is from the US. It's easy to forget that sometimes.

So is the Israeli democracy in danger because of the power of the Supreme Court,

or because of the reform? Are we currently witnessing the fracturing of Israeli society,

or the revitalization of its civic society? I think Javi's answer is going to be, yes,

Javi, thank you for joining me. Pleasure to be here.

Okay, so this is a challenging conversation because we do want to get to the heart of what's

going on in Israeli society right now, which is much deeper than a high level theoretical

...