President Isaac Herzog held phone calls with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition party leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, urging them to start an “immediate negotiation process” under the auspices of his office to reach a compromise agreement on judicial reform, after the premier agreed to halt the coalition’s effort to radically curb the Supreme Court’s power earlier Monday night.
The president requested that each side establish negotiation teams so that talks could begin, Herzog’s office said. Gantz quickly heeded the call, announcing that he had tapped MK Gideon Sa’ar, MK Chili Tropper, MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen, and a lawyer, Ronen Aviani with leading the talks on behalf of his National Unity party.
This will be the second time Herzog will be overseeing negotiations on judicial reform in recent weeks. The first round failed to bear fruit, as the coalition refused to halt its legislation to overhaul the judiciary while it was taking place and later rejected the proposal that was unveiled by Herzog earlier this month. The first round also did not include formal representatives from either side, with the president instead largely relying on a team of academic experts who consulted with conduits from the coalition and the opposition.
Gantz phoned Netanyahu after his speech announcing the temporary suspension of the coalition’s legislative effort to overhaul the judiciary, praising the premier for his decision and expressing his willingness to hold good-natured negotiations to reach a compromise.
Netanyahu gave Gantz a shout-out during his prime-time Monday address, saying he had read the letter that the National Unity chairman wrote to coalition members a day earlier in which he urged them to halt their legislation to allow for negotiations toward a compromise that will have broad public buy-in.
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A poll released earlier today showed the pragmatic, centrist Gantz garnering significant public support at the expense of Netanyahu’s Likud.
Yair Lapid (L), Benny Gantz (C) and Benjamin Netanyahu (R) (Flash90)
Also during their call, Gantz urged Netanyahu to reconsider the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who on Saturday called to suspend the judicial overhaul and reach a compromise, warning that the societal rift it has caused is impacting the military’s operational capacity. Netanyahu in turn announced that he had decided to fire Gallant, a move that prompted mass, spontaneous demonstrations nationwide.
After immense public pressure that has seen 12 weeks of massive demonstrations, and, on Monday, the announcement of general strikes by the country’s top labor federation and local councils, the prime minister said Monday evening that he was allowing for “a delay” to provide “ a real opportunity for real dialogue,” but stressed that “either way,” a reform would be passed to “restore the balance” that he said had been lost between the branches of government in Israel.
Although declaring that he sought to avoid dividing the nation, Netanyahu decried elements of the protest movement as violent “extremists” who wanted to tear the nation apart and insinuated that supporters of the right-wing, religious government are treated as second-class citizens.
It was not clear Monday night whether Netanyahu intended to reverse the removal of Gallant, who had not yet been served a letter of dismissal. Netanyahu made no mention of Gallant in his speech.
