Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conducted a blitz of interviews with foreign media, and when asked about a case in which the High Court of Justice would rule out the reduction of the reasonableness grounds, he avoided answering. On Friday morning, the chairman of the state camp, Benny Gantz, addressed the evasion.
"In a democratic country, a prime minister respects and acts according to judgments, no matter how much he disagrees with them," he wrote, adding: "There is no room for interpretation and gray areas – plain and simple. If Netanyahu, like any elected official, does not comply with the court's ruling, he will carry out a regime coup that will change the nature of the regime in Israel, which will delegitimize him to serve in office."
Benjamin Netanyahu, Photo: Yossi Aloni/Flash90
Netanyahu was interviewed by ABC last Thursday and defined the move to amend Basic Law: Judiciary by reducing the reasonableness grounds as a "small amendment," and shortly thereafter went so far as to refuse to say whether he would comply with a Supreme Court ruling that would invalidate the legislation passed this week.
He gave the evasive answer after being asked by veteran CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer what would happen to a scenario in which the justices accepted the petitions against the amendment to the Basic Law on Judiciary, and replied: "You're referring to a potential situation where in American terms the Supreme Court would take a constitutional amendment and say it's unconstitutional, that's the kind of turbulence you're talking about. It's kind of a whirlwind, I hope we don't get there." He stressed that "in the United States, too, there is a debate about the Supreme Court and whether it is abusing its powers and whether it should be restrained, but does that mean that America is not a democracy? We don't want an obedient court, but an independent, but not omnipotent."
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