Within days, the leaders of the legal reform and its opponents are required to reach agreements, ahead of the Knesset going into recess in three weeks. In light of the pressure of the times, senior members of the coalition are sending refined messages in favor of an immediate promotion of the contacts for a compromise.
A senior member of the coalition tells the Rishon source website that “we will soften the reform, it will not pass as written”. In the same breath, the same source also added that the coalition will not give up on the core of things and that a compromise will not leave the current situation intact.
Among other things, one of the things that can be reached towards understanding is the attitude to the basic laws and determining their status. An example of this is a fundamental law passed in four readings, one of which is in the next Knesset, or a law passed by a majority of 80 members of the Knesset that a court cannot invalidate because it has the special status of a two-thirds majority of the Knesset.
In light of the willingness to negotiate and reach a compromise by Constitutional Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman and Justice Minister Yariv Levin, as opposed to the opposition’s boycott, the coalition says that they will draft the laws according to a compromise that they themselves will reach or try to reach agreements with the protest of the organizations – including Heitkists or economists – so that they will say “We live with the outline, this is not the end of democracy.”
“I myself do not think that the reform should be passed as written and spoken as I wrote in the draft,” Rothman tweeted earlier. “I explained that changes were introduced even before the first reading, and will be introduced between the first reading and the second and third, because this is how the legislative procedure works.” In response to MK Matan Kahana from the state camp, Rotman added that the opposition is invited to “participate in the discussion instead of throwing stones and burning the country.”
David Bitan supported this and said in an interview on Channel 2 that “MKs from the Likud, including me, said that this legislation should be softened, and that’s what it will be. Netanyahu also explained to Levin that he needs to compromise and soften.” According to him, “Part of the compromise that needs to be made is to address the specific problems that create a catalyst for the legal reform right now. Once agreements are reached regarding the conscription law, there will be no pressure to end the reform so quickly.”
