[dramatic music] - Democracy should be capable of protecting, defending itself against those who are using the very tools that it provided and the very freedom that it bestow upon the people in order to destroy it from within.

[bright music] - Hello and welcome to "GZERO World."

I'm Ian Bremmer, and today, we are looking at the social and political instability that has rocked Israel for the past several months and shows little sign of abating.

Sure, it has something to do with the long-standing Palestinian question which has dogged and defined Israel since its founding.

It's also at least a little related to the volatile security situation within the region as Israeli tensions with Iran approach a breaking point.

But the spark that sent hundreds of thousands of demonstrators into the streets of Haifa and Tel Aviv and Jerusalem was about something far more contentious, far more polarizing.

In fact, it's a subject so fraught with controversy that I'm almost afraid to say it out loud.

That's right, I'm talking about judicial reform.

Trust me, it's a lot more interesting than it sounds.

And to help me break it down, I'll be joined by former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.

And later we'll head to the land of corgis and crumpets to take a look at the royal family businesses.

England crowns a new king.

But first, a word from the folks who help us keep the lights on.

[bright music] - [Announcer] Major corporate funding provided by founding sponsor First Republic.

At First Republic, our clients come first.

Taking the time to listen helps us provide customized banking and wealth management solutions.

More on our clients@firstrepublic.com.

Additional funding provided by Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prologis, and by... [dramatic music] - Israel is a land of dichotomies, ancient versus modern, sacred versus secular, Jewish versus Arab, peaceful versus violent.

And so, it was only fitting that late last month Israelis marked two national holidays, the typically somber Memorial Day and the more celebratory, Independence Day back-to-back.

[somber music] On Tuesday, April 24th, thousands of bereaved families commemorated loved ones lost to the country's many wars and terrorist attacks.

[horns blare] The next day, thousands more celebrate Israel's 75th year of independence.

But they weren't all celebrating, because there's another much more familiar contrast that's looming over the country, and that's Left versus Right.

[crowds cheering] For months now, hundreds of thousands of Israelis across the political spectrum have flooded the streets to either protest or support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to reshape the balance of power between Parliament, the executive, and the judicial system.

Since taking office last December, Netanyahu's far right coalition has been trying to pass legislation that would give the executive branch control of the Supreme Court's composition and allow the Knesset, that's Israel's Parliament, to overturn court rulings with a simple majority.

While the reform's right-wing proponents say they just want to check an overly activist liberal and unelected judiciary, critics argue the plan would weaken the court, remove protections from minorities, and undermine democracy.

In the face of massive street protests, as well as pushback from within the military diplomatic and business sectors, Netanyahu finally blinked.

On March 27th, he promised to delay a vote on the legislation until the Parliament reconvened in May.

Attentive viewers will note that May is in fact right now.

But as the country paused late last month to commemorate its dead and celebrated its continued existence, 70-year-old Ehud Geiger couldn't help but notice that this year's holiday felt different.

- We feel that the togetherness and the emotional days that we were together, altogether, is starting to fall apart.

- [Ian] As divided as Israelis are right now, Netanyahu is feeling conflicted.

If he presses on with his controversial judicial reform agenda, he risks causing irreparable harm to Israel's democracy, its national identity, its economy.

But if he pulls back, he risks losing the support of the far right coalition that's keeping him in power.

Joining me now to talk about Bibi's next move and the political headwinds ahead is a man who sat in a hot seat himself, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, so good to see you, sir.

- Thank you for having me.

- So much to ask about, and I wanna start with the domestic political situation.

Of course, the Knesset is back in session, and that means with it, the status of this incredibly challenging judicial reform.

And I'm wondering if you can talk to me about where you think that is going politically and the impact it'll have.

- First of all, I have to make sure that every one of us understand what is this reform What they call reform was defined by our Supreme Court chief, a lady named Esther Hayut.

She defined it as a attempt to crash the independence of the Supreme Court and to push Israel out of the family of democracy.

That's not just a reform.

And to mention to all the audience that in Israel, there is no constitution, no two layers, the House, the Senate, something like this, no veto of the president, no filibuster, no checks and balances, nothing.

The only thing that makes Israel a democracy not a de facto dictatorship, is the fact that we have an independent, professional Supreme Court, that's all.

- One thing that I, of course the audience also, needs to know about Israel is that it's not a two-party system, it's a multi-party system.

And in that regard, does it mean as much for any executive to have control over the appointments in the judiciary as it would in a country where the parties and the governments are much stronger?

- In our situation, the legislative branch is already fully, fully enslaved to the executive one.

There is not a single law in the Knesset that can pass if it's not supported by the government.

And the Knesset, for years, does not really oversee the actions of the government.

So, we have only two branches, and even the one, the judicial one, is extremely fragile, because it's based only on the independence of the Supreme Court.

There is no other mechanism to separate it or to put any checks and balances.

Democracy should be capable of protecting, defending itself, against those who are using the very tools that it provides and the very freedoms that it bestows upon the people in order to destroy it from within.

And against this, there is a spontaneous, civil resistance movement that comes to cover all the leading groups of every aspect of our life, not just former judges but former generals, special forces, pilots in the Air Force and cyber warriors and shrinks and academics and social workers and teachers.

Everyone is against it.

We already are over 400,000.

It's the equivalent probably of 15 million Americans going to the streets every weekend for 17 weeks now.

- Right, again, we're talking about 5% of the Israeli population, basically, on the streets every weekend in response.

It's a staggering display of social force, this movement.

Israel has seen nothing like this since its independence.

- Never, never.

We have never seen something like this It's moving, inspiring.

I am one of the people who have been a more harsh critic, probably over Netanyahu and support this movement from day one behind the scenes.

I did not expect it to be so powerful and creative.

- But despite the protest, you got a delay but my point is that the state of this judicial, so-called judicial reform today is at least, from Netanyahu's perspective and his coalition government's perspective, intended to still go ahead, is that correct?

- No, they delayed it.

They don't have the- - Yeah, they delayed it, but they are now intending to go ahead with it.

- They're not going immediately back.

They have to pass a budget.

Without a passing a budget in four weeks from now, the government goes out and there's a new election.

So he had to focus on this.

He had to satisfy his supporters for this unholy alliance that he created in order to impose this legislation.

So, this unholy alliance, everyone needs his legislation, and there might be some problems around passing the budget.

- This leader, he represents, you call it an unholy alliance.

It is, of course, a group of parties that together, do reflect the will of a large section of Israeli society.

They won in a democratic election.

They created a weak, but nonetheless, legitimate government.

How is it that Israel, which has been described by many as the most vibrant democracy in the Middle East, finds itself in a position where this government, not just Netanyahu, but with all the coalition members, are in favor of a reform process that would deeply undermine the very institutions that it stands for.

- The regime change was basically hidden from the public when we went to the ballots several months ago Bibi stated before, during, and after the campaign that he will be focused on four issues or five issues, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the shortage of housing and cost of living, which is very high in Israel, and the governance, the level of criminal activities, murders and whatever in the streets.

He doesn't do anything about it.

The economy is not the verge of abyss.

The security is a very sensitive, fragile situation.

The relationship with the United States has deteriorated and with the Jewish community as well.

So there was never such a distraction of value of wealth in four months.

And so, it was a clever tactic, because you cannot come to the public and tell them, "I want to save myself from a criminal court case, "and I need your support with it."

No one will support it.

So basically, it's a tricky behavior.

So I changed some of what you say.

It's a totally legal government, but it's clearly illegitimate government.

The activities are so bluntly illegitimate.

We say in Hebrew, "There is a black flag waving over it."

They don't have and cannot have the authority or legitimacy to change the rules of the game and the rules by which our democracy is acting.

And the best example is the demands of the pilots.

They basically said, "We have a contract with democracy.

"We are ready in a short call, tomorrow morning, "without any early notice to come "and to fly over the the skies of the whole Middle East, "risk our lives, sometimes we bury some of our comrades "in the service of a democratically-practicing government."

- [Ian] Right, but they were prepared.

They were ready stepped down, yes, correct.

- Even if we dispute the policy, including the policy behind the mission we are asked to execute.

But, we cannot and will not volunteer to serve any dictator or de facto dictatorship.

- How is it that ultimately this change in the way your country's judiciary runs, how is that ultimately prevented from being changed?

What happens that stops this reform?

- Look, if Netanyahu will start next week or next month or two months from now, it doesn't matter.

He will start to pass those laws.

They will be immediately canceled by the Supreme Court.

Even if the content of the law has to do with the way that the Supreme Court judges are nominated, they will not hesitate, they will cancel it.

They will cancel any such law.

Once they cancel it, it's a clear constitutional crisis with no constitution.

- Crisis, yeah.

- Because what I call the gatekeeper, the head of the Secret Service, the head of the police, the head of the armed forces, the head of the Mossad, they might get contradicting orders from their superiors in the government and the Supreme Court.

And I'm confident that they will follow, I happen to know all of them personally, they will follow the orders of the Supreme Court.

So the government will find itself paralyzed by trying to change the regime.

BiBi won't be able to turn Israel into the de facto dictatorship.

We are not Hungary.

We are not Poland.

And and we learned the lesson from both of them.

- Yeah, Israel, it's small, it's wealthy, and it's people are educated, and they're not complacent.

So, those are obviously important things.

So, I think a lot of viewers in the United States, they're used to, whenever there are big demonstrations in Israel, they assume it's about the Palestinians.

It's not about the Palestinians this time, but the Palestinian issue has not gone away.

I'm wondering how you think about Israel/Palestine in the context of what is happening right now in Israel's own democracy.

- The Palestinian is most important, the biggest elephant in the room, a mammoth.

And we have other two elephants, [crowd chanting] one of them is the relationship of religion and state, and the third one is the huge gaps in opportunities and results for Israeli kids from all sectors of the society.

And I think that all these elephants, however important, and they're not less important than the one we are dealing with, should be put on the shelf for the meantime.

Because, if Israel turned into a dictatorship, de facto dictatorship, none of these could be discussed even, not to mention decided.

The right-wing government, led by these unholy alliance will try to kill the Palestinian Authority to encourage the Hamas and hit them, because they are a good, so to speak, enemy.

Everyone understand they are murderers.

You cannot be expected to make any arrangements with them.

And they will destroy everything, including the Abrahamic Accords and probably the relationship with Egypt and Jordan and them.

So there is no way, and the same applies to the religion, the synagogue, and the state.

You cannot decide all these issues.

We need the newly emerging line, a new line between those in the huge majority, including Likudniks and Orthodox people, religious people, and so on, those who believe in the supremacy of law, in the values of the Declaration of Independence, which is our equivalence, so to speak, of the Constitution and democracy.

And those people who are against democracy, against rule of law, against the Declaration of Independence, under this new dividing line, we are the majority.

We have to use it to translate it into political movement, into a crystallized constitutional moment when we will have an opportunity either to define a constitution or at least to have a basic law, heavily protected basic law about legislation.

The rules of the game, the rules of the game, not the content, the rules of the game should be protected, secured together with a charter of human rights and the rights of the individual.

- So last thing I want to ask you, Ehud, Israel just commemorated Memorial Day, and you're one of the most decorated veterans in Israel history.

I'm wondering if you can talk just for a moment about what sacrifice means to you and maybe if you have a story around that that you'd wanna share.

- Look, I spent 36 years in uniform.

I lost many friends of mine.

In a way, I always feel as an adult that I'm escorted, moving around me, by those guys.

I remember they smiled when they were 20 or 30.

They were, in many ways, better than we are.

And I always will remember Archibald MacLeish who said, "We gave you our death.

"It's upon you to give it a meaning," and it's upon us to give a meaning to the huge sacrifice.

So we paid a heavy price for deciding to come back to the political arena, third time in our three and a half millennial history, and we are ready to pay the price, we pay it.

But, when you look at proportions, I just have two anecdotes to tell you.

We lost in all the Israeli war, 24,000 people.

24,000 people are the amount, the number of Jews that in November of '43, in 24 hours were executed, went to heaven in Majdanek.

24,000 is the amount of prisoners that were freed out of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

After the breach, when the American came there, 24,000 died within three weeks from the experience of living four years in the camp.

So basically, if you look at the proportion, we were in a better situation.

And last anecdote, a few weeks before I left office as a prime minister, I was sitting in a inauguration ceremony of new fighter pilots.

And I noticed a woman, a young woman, a girl walking between those cadets.

So I asked the commander of the bases, "Who is this woman?

"What does she fly, and where is she from?"

He answered, "In the next corps, "she will be inaugurated in four months.

"She's flying F-16.

"She's one of the five best aces "in the whole cohort or corps, "and her name is Roni Zuckerman."

It sent shiver into my spine.

I told myself, here is all our story in a nutshell.

Here I sit, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense of independent, strong Israeli, stronger than any neighbor 1,000 around.

I am the grandchild of helpless and hapless Jews in the ghetto of Warsaw that disappeared either in Treblinka or by typhus or something else and during the war with some of their children.

I'm sitting here, and in front of me walking, Roni Zuckerman, the granddaughter of Antek Zuckerman and Zivia, who came and fought the Gestapo for three weeks during the Passover of '43.

It's now exactly eight years after the rebellion.

And here, I see her, and this young lady she probably made a barrel roll 30,000 feet into the the sky with her F-16 over the kibbutz named after the warriors of the ghetto that her grandparents fled from the terror after the whole ghetto burnt.

- Ehud Barak, thanks for joining us today.

- Thank you.

[bright music] - And now, moving from one US special relationship to sort of another, we head to England to talk about something absolutely no one disagrees about, the British Royal Family.

[horns blare] [crowd chants] For the first time in 70 years, the United Kingdom is crowning a new monarch.

- God save the King!

- [Crowd] God save the King!

[horns blare] - [Ian] Charles was four during his mother's 1953 coronation.

He's now 74, and he's the oldest person to be crowned in British history, still young for the American Presidency.

But he hasn't just been sitting around for the past 50 years.

Sure, this is the normal prince stuff, welcoming foreign dignitaries, attending galas, playing polo, dressing in finery.

But at the same time, Charles has transformed his private estate, the Duchy of Cornwall into a billion pound business empire.

The Duchy of Cornwall was created by Royal Charter in 1337 as a way to support the heir to the throne who receives its annual profits.

Charles inherited it in 1969 when he became Prince of Wales, not bad for a 21st birthday present.

- It is with a certain sense of pride and emotion that I have received these symbols of office.

- [Ian] At the time, it was a sleepy collection of land and rental properties in Southern England.

But by the 80s, Charles started modernizing it into a major commercial enterprise.

In 1993, the Duchy paid Charles £2.9 million.

That same year he and his mother negotiated a pretty sweet deal with then Prime Minister John Major.

The royals agreed to pay personal income tax, less expenses in exchange for immunity from the UK's 40% inheritance tax.

- There is a unique circumstance in a hereditary monarchy.

There should be specific exemptions from assets passing from one sovereign to his or her successor.

- [Ian] The deal incentivize the Windsors to funnel their wealth through the line of succession.

And in 1996, Charles settled a very expensive divorce with Diana Spencer and became even more meticulous about the royal finances.

By 2004, Charles made almost £12 million from the Duchy.

That's a 300% increase in 10 years.

How'd it grow so fast?

Diversification.

He still owns a ton of land, but it also snapped up office space, shopping malls, warehouses, supermarkets, even a prison.

The estate also has a huge investment portfolio, and because it is part of royal heritage, it doesn't pay any corporate or capital gains tax.

By 2021, the Duchy paid Charles £23 million, and it was worth over a billion.

That's more than 650% growth in three decades.

So yes, he's now officially King Charles III, but another title could be the Wolf of Buckingham Palace.

The family does bring in a lot of money for the UK economy, absolutely, but the Windsor's personal fortune has ballooned at a time when Britain is dealing with a cost of living crisis and deep budget cuts.

And Charles isn't nearly as popular as his mother.

As inflation skyrockets in the UK, maybe his reign will have Brits starting to wonder if it's time to renegotiate that sweetheart tax deal.

[bright music] That's our show this week.

Come back next week, and if you like what you see, or even if you don't, but you wonder what democracy will fall next, we've got your answer.

Check us out at gzeromedia.com.

[bright music] [bright music continues] [bright music continues] [bright music] - [Announcer] Major corporate funding provided by founding sponsor First Republic.

At First Republic, our clients come first.

Taking the time to listen helps us provide customized banking and wealth management solutions.

More on our clients at firstrepublic.com.

Additional funding provided by Jerre and Mary Joy Stead, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Prologis, and by.... [bright music]