Much has been written on the constitutional overhaul in Israel, and the attendant constitutional crisis in the first nine months of 2023. Since October 7, however, with the breakout of the Israel-Gaza war, the overhaul was seemingly shelved. This Article seeks to connect both events, by comparing the legal-political response to the overhaul with the legal-political response to the war. It asks why, given the intensity of the protest movement generated by the overhaul, there was a dearth of protest activity after the war, even though both events implicated similar values, namely the rule of law and individual rights, championed by the protest movement. I argue that a central reason for the disparity cannot only be explained by the dynamics of war but also due to the tensions and complexities inherent in Israel’s self-professed constitutional identity as a Jewish and democratic state. In particular, I argue that anti-overhaul protests appealed to liberal universalist values to garner bipartisan support, with the effect of bypassing substantive issues such as the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and discrimination faced by Israeli Palestinians. This explains the lack of Arab participation in the protests, as many perceived them to be an internal Jewish Affair. Thus, when post-war repressive measures mostly affected Israeli Palestinians, the protest movement failed to rally in their support. Although anti-overhaul protests could have brought about greater liberal consolidation in Israel, the relative lack of post-war mobilization casts lingering doubts on the possibility of long-term consolidation of liberal values in Israel. Attempts to depoliticize the protests, while perhaps successful in warding off the overhaul, and though impressive on their own, have likely failed in instilling deeper, more resilient, liberal values in Israel.

On October 7, 2023, somewhere around 1,500-3,000 terrorists invaded southern Israel killing 1,200 people, injuring 1,455, and taking 239 as hostages resulting in the largest mass-casualty event (MCE) in the country’s history. Most of the victims were civilians who suffered from complex injuries including high-velocity gunshot wounds, blast injuries from rocket-propelled grenades, and burns. Many would later require complex surgeries by all disciplines including general surgeons, vascular surgeons, orthopedists, neurosurgeons, cardiothoracic surgeons, otolaryngologists, oral maxillofacial surgeons, and plastic surgeons. Magen David Adom (MDA) is Israel’s National Emergency Prehospital Medical Organization and a member of the International Red Cross. While there are also private and non-profit ambulance services in Israel, the Ministry of Health has mandated MDA with the charge of managing an MCE. For this event, MDA incorporated a five-part strategy in this mega MCE: (1) extricating victims from areas under fire by bulletproof ambulances, (2) establishing casualty treatment stations in safe areas, (3) ambulance transport from the casualty treatment stations to hospitals, (4) ambulance transport of casualties from safe areas to hospitals, and (5) helicopter transport of victims to hospitals. This is the first time that MDA has responded to a mega MCE of this magnitude and lessons are continually being learned.

Brucellosis, a global zoonosis, is endemic in Israel. We used a national database of culture-confirmed cases (2004–2022) to analyse the trends of brucellosis. Of 2,489 unique cases, 99.8% were bacteraemic, 64% involved males, and the mean age was 30.5 years. Brucella melitensis was the dominant species (99.6%). Most cases occurred among the Arab sector (84.9%) followed by the Jewish (8.5%) and Druze (5.5%) sectors. The average annual incidence rates overall and for the Arab, Druze, and Jewish sectors were 1.6/100,000, 6.6/100,000, 5.5/100,000, and 0.18/100,000, respectively. The annual incidence rates among the Arab (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 36.4) and the Druze (IRR = 29.6) sectors were significantly higher than among the Jewish sector (p < 0.001). The highest incidence rates among the Arab sector occurred in the South District, peaking at 41.0/100,000 in 2012. The frequencies of B. melitensis isolated biotypes (biotype 1 – 69.1%, biotype 2 – 26.0%, and biotype 3 – 4.3%) differed from most Middle Eastern and European countries. A significant switch between the dominant biotypes was noted in the second half of the study period. Efforts for control and prevention should be sustained and guided by a One Health approach mindful of the differential trends and changing epidemiology.

Gorerite, ideally CaAlFe11O19 is a new mineral and M-type hexaferrite of the magnetoplumbite group. It was found in ferrite-rich segregations of esseneite–gehlenite–wollastonite–anorthite melted rock of the ‘olive’ subunit of pyrometamorphic rocks located near Hatrurim Junction in the Negev Desert, Israel. Within these ferrite-rich segregations up to 100 μm in size, platy crystals of gorerite up to 50 μm in size intergrow with hibonite, hematite, maghemite, magnesioferrite, dorrite, barioferrite and andradite, forming aggregates. Additionally, small crystals of gorerite occur within magnesioferrite. Importantly, gorerite did not crystallise directly from the melt. Instead, it emerged through a reaction involving earlier crystallised hibonite and an iron-enriched melt, resulting in the partial or complete replacement of hibonite by gorerite. Gorerite appears grey in the reflected light (R = 18–23%), displaying distinct bireflectance: dark-grey perpendicular to Z and light-grey parallel to Z. Its Raman spectrum exhibits only one strong band at 700 cm–1, which shifts to higher frequencies with increasing Al content. Gorerite crystallises in the P63/mmc space group, with lattice parameters a = 5.8532(4) Å, c = 22.7730(2) Å and V = 675.67(7) Å3 with Z = 2. It exhibits a structure characterised by an intercalation of triple spinel-like S blocks and rock-salt type R blocks along the hexagonal c-axis.

On October 7, 2023, Israel experienced the worst terror attack in its history – 1,200 people were killed, 239 people were taken hostage, and 1,455 people were wounded. This mass-casualty event (MCE) was more specifically a mega terrorist attack. Due to the overwhelming number of victims who arrived at the two closest hospitals, it became necessary to implement secondary transfers to centers in other areas of the country. Historically, secondary transfer has been implemented in MCEs but usually for the transfer of critical patients from a Level 2 or Level 3 Trauma Center to a Level 1 Center. Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s National Emergency Pre-Hospital Medical Organization, is designated by the Health Ministry as the incident command at any MCE. On October 7, in addition to the primary transport of victims by ambulance to hospitals throughout Israel, they secondarily transported patients from the two closest hospitals – the Soroka Medical Center (SMC; Level 1 Trauma Center) in Beersheba and the Barzilai Medical Center (BMC; Level 2 Trauma Center) in Ashkelon. Secondary transport began five hours after the event started and continued for approximately 12 hours. During this time, the terrorist infiltration was still on-going. Soroka received 650 victims and secondarily transferred 26, including five in Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances. Barzilai received 372 and secondarily transferred 38. These coordinated secondary transfers helped relieve the overwhelmed primary hospitals and are an essential component of any MCE strategy.

The Israeli democracy regulates the operation of the judiciary through the constraints of formal rules that check the political actors, the individual judges, and the judiciary. Basic laws, laws and regulations prescribe the operation of every subject. Yet beyond these formal rules, informal institutions and practices are sometimes equally important in the operation of the judiciary, as they are in any constitutional system. In Israel, some of these informal institutions are crucial for the flourishing of democracy and the rule of law, through their protection of judicial independence from external political interference. The imminent possibility that political actors may set some of them aside is nothing less than a potential transformation in the constitutional order. Over the past few decades, judges and court administrators have introduced other internal informal institutions in the administration of the Israeli Judiciary, which qualify formal judicial accountability mechanisms in ways that may prove to be detrimental to democratic principles. This article discusses informal institutions that are important in the operation of the Israeli judiciary, separating the former external kind that are conducive to the rule of law—such as the illegitimacy of political and partisan considerations in judicial appointments—and whose disregard may signal democratic decay from the latter internal kind that may prove detrimental to the courts—such as opaquely changing who is responsible for court administration. Lastly, the political attempt to change informal institutions, detailed herein, can be seen as a harbinger of the current attempt to change formal institutions in the constitutional status of the judiciary in Israel.

Sedentary occupation of the southern Levantine coast spans from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C to the Early Bronze Age Ib phase (c. 7000–3100 BC). Sites dating to the Early Pottery Neolithic (c. 6400–5500 BC) are scarce, however, potentially reflecting the effects of the 8.2ka climatic event. Here, the authors present the investigations at the submerged site of Habonim North off the Carmel Coast. Typological and radiocarbon dating indicate an Early Pottery Neolithic occupation and evidence for continuity of subsistence and economic strategies with both earlier and later Neolithic cultures. The results indicate the resilience of coastal communities in the face of significant climatic uncertainty and contribute to understanding human responses to environmental change.

The last decade has seen the establishment of eight community courts (CCs) in Israel, representing a significant shift from the mainstream criminal justice approach. Inspired by the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, New York, the Israeli CCs reflect an understanding of the links between local communities, crime and rehabilitation. The authors have evaluated the CCs since their inauguration, first in a formative study and then in an evaluation study. The present article focuses on three research modules that were utilized in these studies: the process characterization, which was based on structured observations of court hearings during the formative study; the subjective experiences of court participants, which were collected via in-depth interviews with programme participants; and the recidivism module, which compared the repeat offending patterns of programme participants with those of mainstream court defendants. Rather than detailing the findings of these modules, the paper uses them as examples, offering an open discussion about the process of conducting such studies: the selection of research questions that go beyond the traditional question of repeat offending and their possible theoretical contribution; the methodological, logistical and ethical choices that are made and their underlying considerations; and the obstacles that researchers face en route.