good monday morning to you. i m jim sciutto. hi jim. great to be with you. i m jessica dean and happening right now. massive protests in israel, a crippling general strike and several mayors launching a hunger strike after prime minister benjamin netanyahu fired his defense minister for opposing his plans to overhaul the judicial system . this as many israelis fear the united states closest ally in the region is moving further away from democratic principles. ahead we will have the very latest from jerusalem remarkable events there in israel plus today and though the round of were severe weather expected to strike the southeast of this country, parts of alabama and georgia, bracing for large, hail , damaging winds this after just devastating tornadoes ripped through the region this weekend . at least 26 people are dead, several others injured. we re going to take you live to see scenes of that damage. we do begin this hour, though. with those protests the ongoing general stri
essentially grinding to a halt this massive strike now and now there are fears that it could become violent because we are hearing from some far right extremist group calling for counter protests and i have to say that the protests we saw in the last 24 hours, especially last night last night overnight, especially in televisa, blocking the highway going late at night . he s really police end up using water cannons on them. they felt different. they felt angrier, and it does feel as though the tensions are boiling over, and that s why we re hearing from the israeli partners or benjamin. it s nothing yet actually on whether he will call for a halt to this matter. massive judicial overall , he s planning that s what everyone s been waiting on him for. he was supposed to actually give a speech in the morning. and essentially all the israeli media was saying that he was going to call for an ultimate instead we get this tweet from him, saying that he calls on the demonstrators in jerusalem h
morning that the israeli embassy in washington d. c is going to be closed today. until further notice. that is, according to the spokesperson from the embassy. now when asked if the embassador is going to join the strike, along with the other diplomats who are part of that union that called for all of its members to strike today, the spokesperson said that the ambassador is following the unions instructions that indicates that the ambassador won t be headed into the office today. either this is extraordinary for all of the diplomats to be staying home. as part of this strike, it really demonstrates that this is an issue. that is not only a political crisis at home, but it s turning into a crisis that has reverberations around the world for israel and its diplomacy. now it s not clear if any of these diplomats are actually going to join any public strikes and public protests. they re going to be striking today. they re not heading into work, but wait and watch to see if there are any ot