
Daily Kickoff: Reactions to ‘reasonableness’ removal + Interview with Tzipi Livni
👋 Good Tuesday morning!
In today’s Daily Kickoff, we talk to Tzipi Livni about the Israeli government’s efforts to grow and expand the Abraham Accords, and report on this year’s National Security Grant Program acceptances. Also in today’s Daily Kickoff: Armin Laschet, Jonathan Greenblatt and Samantha Sutton.
After the Knesset passed the first element of the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul yesterday — canceling the reasonableness clause — protests continued late into the night across Israel. Police arrested dozens of demonstrators, and major highways in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem saw scenes of chaos as protestors for hours defied the attempts of police to clear the freeways.
Several petitions have already been filed challenging the law, including by the Israel Bar Association and another by Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, calling on the Supreme Court to intervene. Supreme Court President Esther Hayut and other senior justices cut short an official trip to Germany in order to return home and hold a hearing on the petitions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation hours after the vote, and called for a resumption of talks between the coalition and opposition to reach an agreement on the rest of the planned judicial reforms during the Knesset recess and beyond, until the end of November. Lapid dismissed the proposal as “another lie, whose only purpose is to lower pressure from the Americans and lull the protests to sleep.”
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement calling the vote “unfortunate,” noting that President Joe Biden “has publicly and privately expressed his views that major changes in a democracy to be enduring must have as broad a consensus as possible.”
Senior White House officials, speaking in a virtual briefing to the American Jewish community hours after the Knesset passed the legislation, highlighted the close ties between Israel and the United States, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), a pro-Israel stalwart who is retiring next year, was one of the first lawmakers to comment on the vote, calling a system of “legitimate” checks and balances “essential in all democracies.” In a follow-up tweet, Cardin wrote, “I implore Netanyahu to support the core values that have enabled Israel to flourish and grow.”
Leading Jewish organizations in the U.S. offered a range of reactions, from concern over growing political discord in Israel to outright criticism of the judicial overhaul measure itself. The Jewish Federations of North America said it is “deeply pained over the growing polarization” that has come as a result of efforts to reform Israel’s judiciary, and called on Israeli officials “to suspend any further unilateral changes to the judicial reforms, and urge all parties to return to negotiations under the auspices of President Herzog.”
AIPAC sent a letter to its members stating that the debate over judicial reform has “exposed many deep political divisions in Israel,” describing the Jewish state as a country “deeply engaged in the civic debate.”
The American Jewish Committee “expressed profound disappointment over the passage of the Reasonableness Standard Law in Israel.”
And the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement: “We are deeply disappointed that the Israeli government passed the controversial Reasonableness Bill, failing to heed the call of President Herzog and others to reach a compromise rooted in a broad societal consensus.”
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board described an “overwrought media and political narrative” following the vote, describing the legislation as “modest judicial reform that probably won’t make as much difference as either side claims.” The editorial board suggested that “time may demonstrate that the new ‘reasonableness’ law has changed little,” noting that the justices retain “substantial” power to appoint new justices and “can still hear almost any case.”
“In other words,” the WSJ’s editorial board writes, “the judiciary hasn’t really been reformed, and democracy isn’t dying in Israel.”
In a piece headlined “The ground is cracking under Netanyahu’s feet,” the Washington Post’s editorial board suggests that the Israeli prime minister’s efforts to move forward with judicial reform “endangers Israel’s security, further splinters an already badly divided body politic and strains Israel’s relationship with the United States.”
interview
Livni touts normalization, warns of sidelining Palestinian issue

Tzipi Livni, a former Israeli foreign minister, vice prime minister and minister of justice, celebrated the strength of the Abraham Accords in a conversation with Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod on the sidelines of the Aspen Security Forum last week, but also warned of the potential consequences of sidelining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and pushing ahead with judicial overhaul plans.
Bright spot: Livni said, based on recent trips to the United Arab Emirates, that the relationships that followed the 2020 normalization agreement between the UAE and Israel are even stronger than expected. “Most of us used to look at it [through our] shared security interest because of Iran, and this [would be] the reason for reaching [out] and signing normalization,” she said. “But I discovered… that they are speaking about it as warm peace — more than we have with other countries that we have signed peace agreements with in the past.”
Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Livni said that Arab leaders’ decision to de-link normalization with Israel from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “created a really new Middle East.” She said that while she celebrates the changes and hopes that Saudi Arabia and others join as well, she also has concerns about the consequences for Israel of sidelining the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Even if Gulf states and Arab states decide to change the linkage [of normalization] to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is our responsibility [in Israel] to [address it],” she argued. “It can be an opportunity, if the Saudis will take steps toward Israel [and] Israel will take steps toward the Palestinians — this can be a win-win.”