Drama at Knesset as coalition plows ahead with legislation

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world. Political correspondent Ariela Karmel and reporter Amy Spiro join host Jessica Steinberg for today's episode. It's been an intensive week for lawmakers, reports Karmel, as the government begins dissolving the Knesset to trigger earlier elections and accelerates several controversial pieces of legislation. Karmel discusses the attorney general bill, a final effort by the right-leaning coalition to remove what remains of the only checks and balances on executive power in Israel. Another element of the attorney general legislation is intended to allow elected officials to operate with less scrutiny, says Karmel, making it more difficult to open investigations or indictments against a prime minister or cabinet members. After singer Noam Bettan garnered second place in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night, Spiro discusses the surprising result, given the intensive politics behind the competition, with several countries that dropped out of the contest in protest of Israel's participation. If Bettan had won first place, Spiro notes that it would have complicated decisions about having Israel host the Eurovision next year, but notes that the song contest has survived other wars, boycotts and geopolitical dramas. Check out The Times of Israel's ongoing liveblog for more updates. For further reading: MKs vote to advance bills splitting and weakening role of AG, making it harder to indict PM New bill aims to make it harder to indict senior officials, including PM, ministers Smotrich attacks AG, rule of law in dramatic Knesset committee hearing Defying predictions, Eurovision juries gave Israel a boost amid voting reforms Israel’s Noam Bettan finishes second at Eurovision as Bulgaria takes the win Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Yitzchak Ledee. IMAGE: Political correspondent Ariela Karmel joins host Jessica Steinberg for today's Daily Briefing. (ToI)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.