After passing the budget hurdle, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have to deal again with an issue that he may have been comfortable suppressing in the past two months – legal reform and negotiations at the president's residence. After a long series of talks between the sides, the situation is beginning to become clearer.
The opposition is willing to agree on one component of the reform, for example – the Attorney Generals Law, which would allow ministers to receive private representation in petitions and not be represented by the attorney general. In return, the Judicial Selection Committee will convene in its current format without change, and will be given a commitment that no changes will be made to it throughout the Knesset's term. In addition, a commitment will be given that no other legal-regime measures will be promoted without consent.
Netanyahu after the approval of the budget laws: "We will continue our efforts to reach a broad agreement on the issue of legal reform" // Photo: Likud Spokesperson's Office
The coalition is not yet ready to announce the shelving of changes in the composition of the committee, but is prepared to postpone them for a long time. From the way it stands, Netanyahu wants to reach an agreement at any price, but it is not certain that this is also the will of his partners. Smotrich, Rothman, Levin and other members of the coalition are urging at least one component of the reform to be passed at the summer conference, even if unilaterally.
Netanyahu will have to decide whether he will accede to the demands of his coalition partners, or agree to the opposition's demand that changes in the Judicial Selection Committee be shelved for the entire term, and in effect that he will give up the part that Levin defined as "the heart of the reform."
The talks at the President's House (archive), photo: Kobi Gideon, GPO
Alternatively, if the coalition insists on its position, the opposition will have to decide whether it is willing to compromise only by postponing the committee's changes, rather than announcing a final freeze. Both the political establishment and the president's residence understand that a decision and a breakthrough in the contacts are needed in the near future.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us