Category: Policy issues
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Imagine if Israel’s government was sincere about democracy
Imagine for a moment an alternate reality where the current Israel government under Benjamin Netanyahu is sincere in its stated desire to bolster democracy in Israel? What could they do with the pretty substantial majority they received in our recent elections?
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The People’s Directive – An Alternative To The Anti-Democratic Judicial Overhaul Program
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s President, announced an alternative to the current government’s anti-democratic judicial overhaul program, called the People’s Directive. This is the culmination of weeks of discussions between the President and various stakeholders in Israeli society in response to the current government’s judicial overhaul program that is almost certainly going to cripple the Israeli judiciary…
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How to respond to batsh*t crazy political environments
I have been struggling with how to respond to/handle/cope with the current batsh*t crazy political environment in Israel. Particularly the so-called “Judicial Reform” legislation that our current government is pushing forward at a rapid pace. I asked ChatGPT how it suggests a Stoic would respond to this. It seemed to offer pretty sensible advice.
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A real Democracy has checks and balances
Democracy has been on my mind a lot lately with the current Israeli government’s moves to “reform” our Judiciary, and essentially cripple it in the process. The consequences of this for our democracy will be devastating.
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Yariv Levin makes the case against Judicial Reform in Israel
This headline in Times of Israel today basically reinforces those concerns, and makes a good case against this Judicial Reform legislation. If Justice Minister Yariv Levin’s attitude is anything to go by, concerns about Tyranny of the Majority will be well-founded.
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Choosing Signal over WhatsApp is about personal agency
Reframing the WhatsApp privacy debate It is tempting to frame the discussion about WhatsApp’s privacy policy change that enables WhatsApp to share your profile data with Facebook (even though it’s been doing this for some time without being clear about this) as being about Facebook being able to read your WhatsApp messages. That interpretation is…
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Stand against racism
The wave of violence spreading across the United States is shocking, even as the growing protests are understandable. It boggles my mind that this country, the “land of the free”, is still mired in deeply routed racism, and inequality. Every society has its challenges, certainly. Israel is no different. We have divides of our own.…
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The greatest propaganda machine in history
Sacha Baron Cohen recently spoke about how social media services have become the “greatest propaganda machine in history”. Much of the media’s focus, when reporting on his remarks, was on his attack on Facebook. While he certainly targeted Facebook, he also spoke about how Google, YouTube, and Twitter shape online discourse, and how they help…
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