Articles

In this season of slichot (penitence) we should ask ourselves - does the essence of apology lie in the sense of regret, or in its expression?

With international institutions once again a cornerstone of US foreign policy, Israel will have to adjust accordingly

Congratulations to the Bennett government on approving the outline for lowering the age of the students exempted from service in the IDF to 21. This is a vital and necessary step that the Israel Democracy Institute has recommended in recent years. A kind of necessary evil that will lead in the short term to the entry of about 5,000 ultra-Orthodox into the labor market and thousands more in the coming years.

How many generations of Israelis will be educated without the tools they need to commit to the values of inclusion, respect for the other, and equality?

Survey finds lowering the exemption age is not likely to reduce the number of ultra-Orthodox conscripts to the IDF, however it will encourage thousands of ultra-Orthodox men to enter the workforce.

41.5% of Jewish Israelis think that the solution to maintain the status-quo with the Palestinians is acceptable– 34% think the same of a two-state solution

Dr. Gilad Malach is interviewed on Kan Radion on a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing institutions of higher learning to have separate classrooms for men and women and what the implications will be for the integration of the ultra-Orthodox into Israeli society.

Amazon reportedly cut NSO off from its AWS service - the same one that is supposed to support Israel’s new official state cloud. Could Jerusalem be cut off, too?

The allegations against Israeli cyber-security company NSO have made international headlines. How could this affect the ‘Startup Nation?’

The Knesset recently failed to pass an extension of the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law was adopted in 2003 as a temporary order. Israel's government must now reconsider whether there is indeed a security justification for the sweeping provisions that have been in place until now, and whether there are alternatives that can minimize the potential violation of human rights resulting from the original law.

Writing in Foreign Affairs, IDI President Yohanan Plesner notes that Netanyahu is out, but the crisis he thrived on remains.

To ensure that the President is able to perform his or her symbolic role in the best possible way, it is important to distance the office as much as possible from political and social disagreements and debates.

26% of Israelis think that Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid is the “most influential” figure in the government; in second place with 19% was Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and in third with 11% was Mansour Abbas.

Dr. Gilad Malach on the Finance Minister's Decision Regarding Daycare Subsidies: "This is a welcome decision that will end the preferential treatment that ultra-Orthodox households have enjoyed"

Prof. Amichai Cohen discusses his new book The Constitutional Revolution and Counter-Revolution, and explains the changing role of the High Court of Justice in maintaining the checks and balances of Israeli democracy.

A decade since the 2011 social protest, most Israelis think the social protest has failed to achieve its goals, with rising housing prices and growing gaps between rich and poor. On the other hand, most of them believe that the Balfour protest from the past year has actually succeeded. And despite everything, a large majority of the Israeli public still believes that public protests are an effective tool for influencing government policy

Edna Harel-Fischer sits down with the Tel Aviv Review and unpacks the recent controversy around governance/governability in Israel: How did it become a partisan issue? And what is the role of the public service in safeguarding the will of the people?

The new government offers a timely opportunity to review and assess Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership in terms of its impact on Israeli democracy.

Meirav Cohen, Minister of Social Equality: “Employers should be given incentives to choose older workers”

“Two challenges hover above the rest – a stock market bubble and inflation”

Avigdor Liberman, Minister of Finance, opened the first day of the 2021 Eli Hurvitz Conference on Economy and Society, saying: “We are after more than three years of political crisis without a budget, reforms or legislation. The economy ran on a kind of autopilot. We will now pursue a responsible policy, without deep cuts.

Minister of Environmental Protection Tamar Zandberg, Minister of Energy Karin Elharar, Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli and Minister of Economy Orna Barbibai in a joint declaration at IDI's Conference: "We will cooperate on Israel's climate policy, to lead to an 85% reduction in Israel's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050."

There are many urgent things on the new government's desk - will they have the ability to tackle questions on religion and state?

There has been much talk and little action about the need to delegate powers to the local authorities. Now is the time for actual be movement on the ground.

Outgoing OECD Secretary General Ángel Gurría is a close friend of Israel whose name has become synonymous with the organization itself. Gurría's long tenure saw Israel implement a number of important OECD reforms, will this continue after his departure?

The new government has potential for the return of normalcy, and even for historic changes

Should there be term limits for prime ministers? A mandated cooling-off period between their terms? How easy should it be for Knesset factions to split once elected? IDI experts examine some of the more contentious proposed new laws in the coalition agreements and assess their possible implications.

An increasing number of young Ultra-Orthodox women are choosing not to go down the traditional path of studies preparing them for a teaching career. Instead, they are enrolling in academic institutions to study subjects that will help them embark on a professional career and hopefully be reflected in their income.

With the Knesset set to vote on a new government on Sunday, Prof. Ofer Kenig, a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, presents an following analysis of the proposed government.

There are no provisions for limiting the tenure of prime ministers in parliamentary democracies such as Israel, and any new rules must be objective and not made to satisfy political needs