Against the background of the statements and exchanges between the sides, President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday unusually joined the negotiations on the legal reform at the President's House.
Yesterday, there was an exchange of tweets between the opposition representative in the negotiations, MK Zeev Elkin, and the coalition representative, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs. MK Elkin was quick to congratulate on Twitter: "First victory in the battle for the Judicial Appointments Committee! On March 1, I demanded elections for the Judicial Appointments Committee under existing law. The coalition panicked and wanted to amend the bylaws to postpone the elections. Today is the last day to amend the bylaws, and according to reports, the coalition has surrendered and this time the elections will not be postponed and will be held in accordance with the existing law!"
Celebrated too quickly? Elkin, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Fuchs quickly replied: "And I naively thought that the representatives of your faction in the talks at the president's residence came with a genuine desire to reach an agreement on changing the composition of the judicial selection committee... And not in order to "defeat the coalition" and here it came out of the bag. Rest assured that in the absence of agreement in the negotiations, two coalition representatives will be elected to the committee and the committee will be convened only if the justice minister so desires."
In addition, coalition sources claimed that without progress in negotiations, "the coalition will unilaterally proceed with the legislation of legal reform." The president usually does not participate in talks, but rather representatives on his behalf.
As stated, the talks were halted for a week following Operation Shield and Arrow in the Gaza Strip. These days, talks are renewing, with the main goal of the coalition members being to pass some of the legislation in the Knesset plenum as early as the summer session. According to sources in the coalition who spoke to Israel Hayom, the hope is that the move will be possible through dialogue with the opposition, but the plan is to act to advance the legislation even if full agreements are not reached.
Did not like Elkin's remarks, Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, Photo: Jonathan Zindel/Flash 90
For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's part, the instructions to the coalition negotiating teams remain in place: progress in negotiations to reach as broad an agreement as possible. On the other hand, senior elements in the coalition do not intend to sit on the sidelines and are presented with one of the following two options: reaching agreements or advancing part of the reform unilaterally.
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