Despite the prime minister's efforts to divert the public debate from the legal reform to other issues such as economic recovery, artificial intelligence and high-speed trains, the headlines continue to focus mainly on the expected tension between the government and the court next month, the constitutional crisis that Netanyahu refuses to commit not to come, and the unprecedented panel of Supreme Court justices who will consider the grounds of reasonableness.
But it seems that the really big drama is taking place these days in the ranks of the opposition. In recent weeks, the various parties have begun to sample in polls the strength of a new party, composed of the leaders of the protest against the legal reform, should such a reform be established. When the results were received, their eyes darkened. Such a party, as of today, has the potential of 10-12 seats, and is on the rise. This party is taking a significant bite out of the parties of the left-wing bloc. From Yesh Atid, through the state camp to the Labor Party and Meretz.
The protest march against the legal reform on the way to Jerusalem, photo: Yossi Zeliger
Among the bloc's parties, Gantz still leads safely, but the possible party of Shikma Bressler, Moshe Redman and their friends is already beginning to approach Yesh Atid's figures, in a manner that worries party leaders. So much so, that there are those who are convinced that what led to the change in direction of Yair Lapid, who at the last minute agreed to negotiate with the Likud over the legislation on the grounds of reasonableness, is directly related to the poll data that his eye tanned. Suddenly, the goal of toppling the government becomes not the most pressing thing, when you might finish third or fourth in the race.
Lapid and Gantz troubled // Photo: Gideon Markowitz ,
The opposition believes that Lapid is more attentive and sensitive to high-tech people and business owners than, for example, Benny Gantz. Those who led the protest, closed businesses, threatened to flee money and did everything in their power in recent months to paint the Israeli economy black, are now beginning to feel the results of their own handiwork in their pockets. Including the internalization that this is not reform at all. It's themselves.
Anyone who talks to those sources hears clear assessments from them that they, too, are ready now to calm the situation, to get Lapid to press the brakes, to try to see if there is a way not to exacerbate the situation, not only now in the recess when the legislation has already stopped, but also afterward, when the coalition will try to renew legislation regarding the composition of the judicial selection committee.
Full column tomorrow in "Israel This Week"
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