Israel in Crisis

06/21/23 • 38 min

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For months, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens have taken to the streets to protest government plans to overhaul the judiciary—including plans that would vitiate checks on executive power, allow a simple majority of 61 in the 120-seat Knesset to override almost any ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court, and permit politicians to appoint most of the Court’s justices. Both the protests and proposed reforms take place against the backdrop of significant demographic changes which, in turn, have enhanced the power and parliamentary representation of Israel’s religious parties. Given the Knesset’s current makeup therefore, the reforms will—at least indirectly—grant the religious parties extensive influence over Israeli society.

In this episode, Middlebury College political geographer and Professor of Geosciences Tamar Mayer explains why these plans for judicial reform have pitted the government against many of its citizens, what is at stake in this crisis, and why the roots of this crisis stretch far back into Israel’s past.

SHOW NOTES:

Podcast produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Outro by Middlebury student Vee Syengo ‘25

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

For more information on New Frontiers podcast episodes and guests visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

SHOW NOTES:

Podcast produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Outro by Middlebury student Vee Syengo ‘25

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

For more information on New Frontiers podcast episodes and guests visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

Previous Episode

Why We Need Environmental Justice Part 2 of 2

Part 2 of 2
What is meant by such terms as environmental injustice or environmental racism? What is the environmental justice movement and how is it manifest—in the United States and beyond? In this episode of New Frontiers, political scientist Kemi Fuentes-George discusses these topics and what achieving environmental justice for marginalized populations might actually entail.

SHOW NOTES

For more information on this and other podcasts go to the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs at Middlebury College website https://www.middlebury.edu/office/rohatyn

Between Preservation and Exploitation by Kemi Fuentes-George (MIT Press)

Music Credits

Forte by Ketsa - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Ketsa - Light Rising Album

Produced and recorded by Mark Williams and Margaret DeFoor. Edited by Jonah Roberts (Middlebury ’23).

Next Episode

INTL' NGOs: What You Need to Know

International nongovernmental organizations (INGO’s) like Amnesty International, Care, Oxfam, or World Vision operate independently of governments around the world. But what do we really know about these organizations and their operations, behavior, effectiveness or limitations? What might they be doing or be unable to do, in a country like Ukraine, where many people are suffering and there are dire needs, and yet the war that Russia unleashed impedes their work?

In this episode, political scientist and INGO specialist Sarah Stroup lifts the curtain on international nongovernmental organizations to illuminate their function, efficacy, and constraints.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Outro by Arjun Kumar '25

For information on Sarah Stroup's book , Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Cornell University Press, 2012), visit here.

For more information on Middlebury College and the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, visit here.