This is gps, the Global Public square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and Around The World. Im Fareed Zakaria coming to you from new york. Today on the program, the knesset votes to take away a key power of israels Supreme Court, and as Benjamin Netanyahu urges calm, the nations Political Center and left erupt in anger. Ill talk to the New York Times Paul Friedman about the politics involved and with his colleague Emily Bazilon about the legal issues. Then the secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas on the good news and the bad news from americas Southern Border. Finally, did President Putin lose or gain power after prigozhins failed mutiny . Ill ask russian journalist in exile mikhail zigov. But first heres my take. The mysterious disappearance of chinas Foreign Minister qin gang is a timely reminder that the future of u. S. China relations will be determined not just by american policy and whats happening domestically in the United States such as the president i
israel finds itself embroiled in deep political crisis days after the parliament passed the first major step in prime minister s netanyahu judicial overhaul. this part of the legislation eliminated the israeli supreme court s power to block government actions that the court deems unreasonable. the controversial move drove crowds of israelis back into the streets in protest upon the white house weighed in, as well, saying the move was unfortunate. to understand the complexities of israel and the middle east, who better to ask than the new york times kohl am nift tom friedman who won two pillulitze prizes reporting from the region. welcome, tom. it feels like a small step, but it is a part of a series of moves planned to curtail the
There was never in the constitution the power of judicial review whether the court can essentially decide whether something is consti constitutional or not. that happens later when chief justice marshal took that and decided that that was one of the court s missions. right. in the united states our constitution is written in the 1780s and then in this famous case you re talking about, marbury versus madison, that s 1803. that s when the supreme court says we have the power to say what the law is, to say what the constitution means. for a long time the united states was kind of an outliar. lots of countries did not have judicial review, but then, you know, starts in the 60s and 70s partly relating to the fall of communism for lots of different reasons around the world countries start to write constitutions in which judicial review, the power of courts becomes very important and so israel kind of joins with that transformation and constitutional revolution in the
In a staff writer of the new york times qwest magazine and a felly at yale law school and co-host of slate s political gabfest podcast. emily, first, let s talk about israel. why is it that so many people feel that this is kind of overreach on the part of the the democratic or legislative branch of the israeli government in terms of curtailing the court s power? israel has an unusual checks and balances and separation of powers and the israeli supreme court plays a kind of singular, very important role as a primary check on the government s power. you know, in the united states we have several checks and balances. we have two houses of government, both the house and congress and the senate.
In legal experts and worked for a consensus. they had a majority and they rammed it through, end of story. now, when you think abouting forward, what is a little worrying and i ve talked to israeli friends of mine who talk about this and the parts of the coalition that you re describing that are backing netanyahu, particularly in some of the more extreme stuff, there are all the people in israel who have eight children and the people who are opposing, the old secular leads and such, the tech guys and they re all having two children, if that. is this a potential for israel s future, demographically? definitely, fareed. this is both a legal fight and a social revolution, basically. the ultra orthodox represent about 20% of the population. their numbers double every ten to 25 years. that will be 40% of israel in 20, 25 years. 40% of israel would not have