The various parties in the Knesset gathered today (Monday) for the weekly faction meetings. the chairman of the opposition, Yair Lapidspoke at a Yesh Atid faction meeting and offered a compromise regarding the legal reform of the Minister of Justice Rival Levin. Afterwards, Lapid clarified in a post on Facebook that “sometimes our public discourse is really discouraging, I did not offer any compromise”, and argued why a presidential committee would stop the reform.
In a post on his Facebook account, Lapid wrote: “Minutes after I presented my proposal to establish a presidential committee that would protect the legal system from the disaster that the government is trying to bring upon it, the headlines and statements appeared that ‘Lapid offers a compromise with the government.’ Not only is this not true, my proposal said exactly the On the contrary! I proposed to take the issue out of the hands of a criminal government that has foreign interests, and transfer it to an independent public committee to be established by the president.”
“Such a presidential commission will win the public’s trust and will also stop the destructive process in which a prime minister with serious criminal indictments and ministers convicted of serious offenses dismantle the Israeli justice system and trample on our entire democratic structure. A presidential commission will see this as its duty to maintain the separation of powers, the independence of the court And on the rule of law. All the things that the current government is trying to dismantle and smash,” he added.
“The presidential committee will prevent a terrible rift in the people of Israel”
Earlier, the chairman of the opposition spoke at the faction’s meeting and said: “I suggested to President Herzog to establish an independent presidential committee, which will formulate a real, balanced and considered proposal, to correct and improve the judicial system, and to regulate the relationship between the judiciary and the legislature. The president is currently examining the idea. I believe and hope that the presidential committee will indeed be established and prevent a terrible rift in the people of Israel and the destruction of our democracy.”
He also said, “The dismantling and trampling of the justice system, which the government is pushing with all its might, is tearing Israeli society apart. Even people who have been talking about legal reform for years, understand that this is not reform. It is the destruction of democracy. There is no disputing that there is something to fix in the justice system, there is no system that is not What can be fixed in it, but a reform that is led by a prime minister accused of crimes, and ministers who are convicted criminals, is a reform that cannot be believed.”
“If you want to improve and correct the core of our rule of law system, the person who corrects it should be above all suspicion. The correction cannot be done by accused and convicted persons. It cannot be done by those who have foreign interests. It cannot be done hastily, without checks and balances, to solve political problems. I discussed this last week and again this week with President Yitzhak Herzog. I suggested to President Herzog to establish an independent presidential committee, which will formulate a real, balanced and considered proposal, to correct and improve the judicial system, and to regulate the relationship between the judiciary and the legislative authority,” he added.
In conclusion, he said that “a presidential committee will be able to hear all parties, the court, the government, the opposition, the academy. Instead of the wild galloping that we see today, it will hold an orderly process, at the end of which a balanced proposal will be placed on the national table that will improve instead of destroy, repair instead To break. These days the president is examining the idea. I believe and hope that the presidential committee will indeed be established and prevent a terrible rift in the people of Israel and the destruction of our democracy.”
It should be noted that as part of the talks held by the country’s president Yitzhak Herzog in recent weeks with the aim of preventing a constitutional crisis and stopping the further division in the nation, Herzog also spoke with Lapid.
“We will not agree to a compromise on democracy”
Labor chairman Marev Michaeli She addressed Lapid’s proposal at the beginning of her faction’s meeting and strongly rejected it: “We will not agree to a compromise on democracy.” The former minister added: “200,000 protestors, girlfriends and friends, do not want an independent committee, they do not want to negotiate with a defendant, and they are right and right.
“To make proposals to Netanyahu, regardless of whether directly or through one or another intermediary, is to surrender to him. I am very, very disturbed by the voices made by Gantz and Lapid, Lapid and Gantz. These are exactly the voices that our protesters oppose. These are exactly the voices that relax their hands and may cause them Stay at home. No compromise with Netanyahu. We say unequivocally, no compromise with Netanyahu, no negotiations with Netanyahu, no nice offers to Netanyahu, no bowing down to Netanyahu.”
“No compromise can be reached”
Chairman of Israel Beytinu, Avigdor Liebermanhe also called the leaders of the opposition in the Knesset plenum: “Get out of the movie – it is impossible to reach any compromise on the issue of judicial reform. You say that the government wants to bring Israel to a dictatorship – 100%, so what compromise do you want? 50% dictatorship.”
In addition, Lapid continued to attack the activities of the coalition members in the Knesset plenum and this time the Minister of National Security, the Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvirwas on target: “I have a question for the plenum: Where is Ben Gabir? Six wounded in four shooting incidents in Lod. Where is he? Before the elections we know what would have happened. After five minutes he is there. Instagram, Tiktok, interviews on all channels, assures us that he has There will be no such things. He would have finished it in a day. In Psaghat Ze’ev a girl was hit by a stray shot. A girl. Seven and a half years old. She was sitting at home, they shot into her home.”
“I leave it to you to imagine the series of photos of Ben Gabir with such a girl before the elections. Now the minister is gone. Internal security is a serious matter. Dealing with violence is a serious matter. It is a scourge. Serious people need to deal with it. Experts in the field of using force, not experts on Instagram and Tiktok. Ben Gabir has made a career out of riding on the fears of the citizens. The fears are justified, but in what world is the solution? In what world is the solution to violence in Israeli society a convicted felon who has spent his entire career taking selfies, whose only experience in the police field is that he was arrested without The end of times?”
Meanwhile, at the entrance of the state camp faction, the chairman of the party said, Benny Gantz: “Trojan horses have been introduced into the security system – calls on the Prime Minister to fully subordinate Minister Smotrich to Minister Gallant in the Ministry of Defense and to revoke his powers or to revoke his appointment and remove him from the ministry.”
Gantz also said: “As I warned – the IDF must have one commander, and the security establishment has one appointed minister. The fact that we have reached a situation where contradictory instructions are given regarding the routine operational activity of evacuating an outpost – are a warning sign to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense that politics penetrates deeply into the decision-making processes.”
He went on to say that “there is not and cannot be a second defense minister, there is not and cannot be an alternative power operator in Judea and Samaria. I call on the prime minister to stop the farce – and take all powers from Smotrich now and make him fully subordinate to the defense minister, or cancel immediately His appointment as a minister in the Ministry of Defense. I call on him to inform Ben Gabir that the IOSh Police Force was and will remain part of the organic force of the Central Command. I call on him to do it now, before it is too late. Before we face a significant test in which coalition agreements and political needs, They will harm the operational mission and harm the security of the citizens of Israel. Do not play with security.”
Benny Gantz (Photo: Mark Israel Salem)Smotrich replies to Gantz: “It’s always difficult for the elite who have their cheese moved to accept it”
Chairman of Religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrichreplied to Gantz at his faction’s meeting and said: “I just heard Benny Gantz calling me a Trojan horse in the security establishment. I want to tell Gantz that I’m not scared, always when an elite moves the cheese it’s hard to accept that. It’s hard for a general like Gantz to accept the fact that we are entering Judea and Samaria, stopping the military government, taking responsibility for the populations, including the Arabs. My son, we promise you that we will continue to do good things and change. A fighting opposition is a good thing, it is part of democracy.”
Bezalel Smotrich (Photo: Yonatan Sindel, Flash 90)Smotrich also said that “in the negotiations we demanded to accept responsibility for the settlement in Judea and Samaria and for the civil administration in order to make a real change on the ground. The time has come for the residents of Judea and Samaria to stop being second-class citizens living under a military regime and to receive high-quality civil services like all citizens Israel. That is why we intend to work to remove all civilian issues from the hands of the army. In addition, we have seen in recent years that there is a wild Palestinian takeover of the open areas, the goal of which is the establishment of a de facto Palestinian state. We are also fighting against this with determination.
The steps we are seeing to clear the illegal Palestinian construction in recent days are too little too late.”
“We intend to make a change of direction and a revolution in the entire issue of enforcement of illegal Palestinian construction, including in Khan al-Ahmar and wherever it happens. This is stipulated in the coalition agreements. You know that with us what you choose is what you get, so we will insist that the agreement be respected In full. I discussed this with the Prime Minister together with the heads of the coalition parties and I am confident that the Prime Minister will act immediately to ensure that all the ministers of the government respect the coalition agreements,” he added.
After that, the Torah Judaism faction gathered under the leadership Yitzhak Goldknopf andMoshe Gafni. Gafni spoke and said that “the struggle is not Rabbi Deri’s struggle, it goes down to the root of how Israel will be seen as a Jewish and democratic state. They are fighting and demonstrating against Bibi. The media is completely theirs without a doubt. Among the other arguments of Aharon Barak there is a black hole regarding its identity The Jewishness of the state. The debate is whether Israel is a Jewish and democratic state.”