Israel’s Identity Crisis Exposed as Vote Looms

Israel’s Parliament is due today to pass a bill curbing the power of courts to oversee political decisions, a move that has driven hundreds of thousands into the street and exposed an existential fault line through society.

The government measure removes from judges the ability to void an appointment or decision due to it being “unreasonable,” a broad category that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his religious, right-wing supporters consider a license to legislate from the bench.