Israel’s President Isaac Herzog spoke with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz to set up negotiations through his office to arrive at a compromise on judicial reform. The calls overnight Tuesday were made in the hours after Netanyahu on Monday night announced in a nationally televised address that he would pause the judicial reform legislation making its way through the country’s parliament out of a sense of “national responsibility” and the desire to prevent a “civil war.”
Herzog called on the leaders of the various parties to the conversations to set up negotiating teams in order to immediately begin talks. Netanyahu said he would suspend the legislation but said that the reform will take place and that it will again be taken up and approved during the Knesset’s summer session, which runs from April 29 – July 30.
Meanwhile, the United States welcomed Netanyahu’s announcement of a pause in the judicial reform legislation drive, and repeated its call for a compromise between the government and the opposition in Israel over the final laws.
“We welcome this announcement as an opportunity to create additional time and space for compromise,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing. “A compromise is precisely what we have been calling for. We believe that it is the best path forward for Israel and all of its citizens to find this compromise. Democratic societies are strengthened by checks and balances and fundamental changes to a democratic system should be pursued with the broadest possible base of popular support. And so that’s what we’re going to continue to call for.”
On Tuesday morning, the US ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, told Army Radio that Netanyahu will soon be invited to visit the White House. Such an invitation has eluded the prime minister since his government was sworn in at the end of last year, an implied critique of his government policies.