Episode Two: De-Mo-Krat-Ya!

Judicial reform is about making Israel democratic again, because Israel started as a democratic country.

It's one of the few that are democratic in nature from the day of its beginning.

In Israel, from day one, everyone had a vote.

Women, men, Jews, Arabs, from day one, even during the war.

[instrumental music] Fair enough.

Democracy is obviously a goal we could all agree on, but just what makes a country more democratic? The voice you just heard again is Simcha Rothman, Knesset member and chairman of the Knesset Constitution Law and Justice Committee.

To him, the answer was coming up with a reform that would reconsider how much power Israel's Supreme Court should have vis-a-vis the government and the parliament.

But when Professor Yaniv Roznai, one of Israel's leading constitutional scholars, first saw the proposal for judicial reform advanced by Simcha Rothman and Netanyahu's justice minister, Yariv Levin, his reaction was immediate.

When I saw it, I, I thought, "This is madness." Because what Yariv Levin proposed was the most extreme package of reforms ever proposed by any right-wing member.

There's the old joke about the two Jews having three opinions, but in the case of the judicial reform, differences of opinion came in fast and hot.

Those like Rothman who drove it argue that the courts had too much power, the sort of unchecked authority that no judicial branch enjoyed anywhere in the world.

The sort of power that was being used daily to override decisions made by the democratically elected government.

Those like Roznai who opposed the reform argued that it was nothing more than a power grab by a right-wing cabal, disdainful of checks and balances, and eager to bring the last remaining independent branch of government under its control.

Before we go any further then, we should probably take some time to figure out what the judicial reform was really all about, and what about it made so many Israelis so mad that they were willing to take to the streets again and again and again for months and years on end.