Now to some breaking news from Israel.
The Supreme Court has struck down a controversial change to the judiciary,
one that's ignited deep divisions within the nation.
Let's get right to Elliott Gotkine in Tel Aviv for us now.
Eliot, this refers specifically to a proposed amendment
that would have stripped the Supreme Court of its ability
to declare government decisions as unreasonable.
It's a fascinating ruling, flies in the face of efforts
by Prime Minister Netanyahu.
I think the big question here is, will he stand by the Supreme
Court's ruling
Julia, that's an open question.
He has in the past, including to our very own Wolf
Blitzer, avoided directly answering that question.
But make no mistake, this is an unprecedented decision
by the Supreme Court.
Never before has it struck down a basic law or an amendment
to a basic law, which is the closest thing that Israel has to a constitution.
And what Prime Minister Netanyahu's government did is it came out with this
judicial overhaul, which, as you said, caused months of very deep divisions.
Hundreds of thousands of people on the streets protesting.
At one point, he sacked his defense minister
for suggesting that he pulls this legislation
and then quietly forgot that he'd sacked him.
And, of course, Defense Minister
Yoav Gallant, somewhat busy right now with the war with Hamas.
And so this is an incredibly significant decision
it was a very narrow ruling, eight to seven against the government.
And what Netanyahu wanted to do was and what they did, in fact, do,
because it's a law that's now been struck down,
it did come into effect for a few months and it's now been struck down.
Netanyahu wanted to remove the Supreme Court's ability
to strike down government decisions on the grounds of reasonableness.
And I'll just give you one example that was very relevant to the beginning
of this government's tenure, which is its attempts
to appoint a minister called Aryeh Dairy, who is from Netanyahu's ally.
If one of Netanyahu's allies, the Area Dairies
Party Shas, is in the governing coalition.
Netanyahu wanted to make Aria Dairy a minister,
but he's been convicted three times most recently for tax fraud.
The Supreme Court said, no,
it's unreasonable to make him a decision because of his convictions.
And as a result, he wasn't made a minister.
So what this means in future now is that the Supreme Court will continue
to have the power
to strike down decisions such as those on the grounds of reasonableness.
It will be seen as a victory for opponents of Netanyahu
and all those hundreds of thousands of people who were out on the streets week
in, week out for months on end, protesting against the government's plans to weaken
the Supreme Court.
It will, of course, also be seen as a loss on the part of Netanyahu
government's supporters.
We're not seeing any signs of protest right now.
Of course, Israel is in the middle of that war with Hamas.
And indeed, those divisions that this judicial overhaul created
seem to have been not forgotten.
But certainly shunted to the side.
Now, this decision could potentially threaten to reopen them.
We've heard from the justice minister, Yariv Levin.
He was the architect of this judicial overhaul.
He's already assailed
the timing of this decision, saying it's the opposite of the unity
that Israel needs right now.
But Julia, just one note on that.
The Supreme Court had no decision but to issue its ruling right now
because two of the Supreme Court justices have to step down this month.
Julia, it also could have profound implications for the war, too, Eliot,
because doesn't it also pick members of the current war cabinet
against each other to based on their views on how they should have played
out or shouldn't play out
I think, Julia,
this war cabinet and we're in particular talking about one of the opposition
leaders, Benny Gantz and his party, which is now in the war cabinet,
The judicial overhaul is really not something that they are there
to talk about or to discuss
It's not even really been it's almost been forgotten very bizarrely.
It's almost been forgotten
as a result of this war and Hamas terrorist attacks of October the seventh.
And so as a result, I don't think it's going to necessarily
sew divisions in this war cabinet the country has generally been united
in this war with Hamas in the wake of those attacks of October the seventh.
And I think that the war cabinet will remain very much focused
on the job at hand, which is to destroy Hamas militarily
and to get the 100 plus hostages still being held in captivity
by Hamas and other groups inside the Gaza Strip
for some 80 days now to get them all back home.
Yes, this is a controversial issue, this judicial overhaul.
Yes. The Supreme Court
ruling is also controversial but I think the war cabinet in particular
will remain very much focused because this war, certainly from Israel's
perspective, is more important than this judicial overhaul.
Julia Yes.
The message in there,
I think, for the prime minister to perhaps now is not the time election.
Thank you for that report there.