Josh Hammer is Newsweek opinion editor and host of 'The Josh Hammer Show' relates in his latest op-ed to the planned Judicial reform led by Justice Minister MK Yariv Levin and the reactions to it in Israel and abroad.
"Tens of thousands of activists have taken to Israel's streets to protest the proposal", Hammer writes, "and newspaper editorial boards from Washington, D.C. to Brussels have condemned the reforms in no uncertain terms."
But Hammer states: "There is no substantive basis whatsoever for these performative shrieks of hysteria. The Netanyahu-led government's judicial reform package is just and proper, as a matter of both political theory and comparative constitutional law."
Hammer claims that "the judicial reform package would substantially bolster Israel's actual democracy by diminishing its juristocracy."
"Things began to go haywire for Israel in the 1990s", Hammer explains, "During that time, Aharon Barak, chief justice of Israel's Supreme Court, pronounced a "constitutional revolution" and arrogated to his institution power unprecedented for any supreme court in any Western-style democracy. As a result of Barak's "revolution," the Court usurped a plenary power to overturn any piece of legislation at any time, for any reason whatsoever."
Hammer defines the current situation in Israel as "Judicial supremacy" and says that if the U.S. Supreme Court acted the way the Israeli Supreme Court acts "cities would probably burn."
Hammer explains what the reform includes and states that "This is all incredibly standard, straightforward, and noncontroversial. The result, if the reforms are passed, would be a more democratic State of Israel."