Netanyahu refutes claims his judicial reforms harm Israel’s democracy
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected criticisms that his government is harming Israel’s democracy with the passage of its judicial reforms.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks on Memorial Day
At the same time, he left the door open for further negotiations on a compromise solution.
“Fulfilling the will of the voter is by no means ‘the end of democracy,’” he said in a video address. “It is the essence of democracy. Because of the importance of the issue, the coalition worked in every way to reach agreements with the opposition. It’s really not obvious.”
Netanyahu went on to say that when his side was in the opposition and wanted to stop the Oslo Accords and the disengagement from Gaza from being passed by the Knesset, the ruling governments at the time did not reach out to the opposition leaders in an attempt to reach some sort of compromise as his government did.
But, said Netanyahu, his government behaved differently.
“We did agree to stop the legislation, we stopped it for three consecutive months,” he said. “We agreed to significant changes in the original policy.”
And Netanyahu said that they even tried at the last minute to reach a compromise with the opposition, but they refused. And he believes that a compromise can still be reached, offering to continue negotiations with the opposition and to not move forward with any more judicial reforms until at least November.
The Prime Minister also said that all sides of the debate agree that Israel “must remain a strong democracy that it will continue to protect individual rights for everyone, that it will not become a Halachic state (a theocracy based on Jewish law), that the Supreme Court will continue to be independent and that no party will take control of it.”
Netanyahu went on to call for an end to the threats to refuse IDF reserve duty being made by his opponents and said that the IDF should not be politicized.
“We have one country, one house, one people,” he said, promising to protect them on the eve of Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and fasting over the destruction of Jerusalem two thousand years ago that will be observed this week from Wednesday night through Thursday sundown.
“I say to the leaders of the opposition: we can continue to argue, we can continue to fight, but we can also do something else: we can reach agreements about the future,” declared Netanyahu. “Let’s come to an agreement. This is my call to you, and I extend my hand to call for peace and mutual respect within us.”
The Prime Minister concluded his remarks with a warning to Israel’s enemies not to take its internal conflict as a sign of weakness.
“As always, we will stand shoulder to shoulder and repel together any threat to our dear country,” he said.
The Israel PM has passed his use-by date in politics.
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