July 20

Hundreds of IDF reservists, many in the Air Force and Shayetet, have refused their voluntary service, because of the government overhaul. JPost reported that army sources expect the number may reach a thousand reservists this week. 300 IDF medical reservists, including Dr Or Goren, head of surgery at Ichilov, have also said they would end their volunteer reserve duty. Nadav Argaman, who led the Shin Bet security service 2016 until 2021, told Army Radio that he supports the reservists’ refusal  to serve. “We are on the brink of civil war.”

93% of the 300,000 Bedouins in the Negev, all Israeli citizens, surveyed this week said they knew very little or nothing at all about Israel’s judicial overhaul, according to a Rifman Institute survey.

President Isaac Herzog spoke to a standing ovation in the US Congress, assuring them that “democracy is in Israel’s DNA.”  The Biden White House has explicitly said that Israel needs to reconsider judicial reform, lest the countries’ special relationship “sustain irreparable damage.”

Last night in a 9 (support) to 7 (opposed) vote, and after rejecting 27,000+ objections, MK Simcha Rothman’s Knesset Constitution Committee approved the Reasonableness Bill, for its second and third readings in the Knesset. It is expected to pass on Monday or Tuesday.

Pro-government demonstration announced by Likud MK May Golan for Kaplan in Tel Aviv, Sunday at 6 pm, to “show the left wingers.”

The hundred- person spontaneous anti-overhaul march, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, is now in its third day. It is expected to end Saturday night, in front of the Knesset.