President Isaac Herzog responded Thursday morning to the harsh criticism of his suggested compromise to the judicial reform plan he presented on Wednesday.
At the annual conference of the National Food Security Initiative, the President stated: “It is essential for me to say that I obviously hear the reactions from across the spectrum to the compromise that I suggested, and I accept any subjective criticism with love and respect.
I suggest that everyone study the plan and my speech in depth to see what a good alternative it presents for Israel. ‘The People’s Framework’ that I presented is a suggestion, a base for discussion with which the sides can work, change, and correct, this isn’t the end of the discussion, but rather the beginning.”

Herzog emphasized: “Everything is done to find a widespread agreement in Israeli society and to avoid infighting as much as possible, to bring national agreement, to calm things down, and to bring dialogue. All based on the love that we see here.”
On Wednesday, President Herzog unveiled this evening his proposal, which he called the ‘People’s Framework,’ for a compromise on the government’s planned judicial reforms.
The plan does not grant the coalition a majority in the committee for electing judges. According to the plan, the committee will consist of 11 members: four coalition members, two opposition members, three judges, and two public representatives who will be chosen by the Justice Minister and will be agreed on by the Supreme Court President. This committee makeup is not acceptable to the right-wing government since, according to them, the judges are overwhelmingly leftist.
The plan also includes a substantial limit to the Knesset’s ability to legislate Basic Laws, a prohibition for the Supreme Court to annul Basic Laws, and a limit to its ability to annul common laws.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich strongly criticized President Herzog’s suggested compromise, stating: “I have hope that there will soon be a message from the President’s Residence that there was a glitch and that he sent out by mistake the position papers sent to him by [Supreme Court] President Hayut and the Israel Democracy Institute instead of the balanced outline that I know he wanted to promote in recent days. If no such announcement is made, then the President has made a sharp turn to the left, succumbing to threats and rewarding violence.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu also rejected the President’s compromise, stating, “I think that any attempt to reach an agreement and to negotiate is certainly appropriate, and therefore the representatives of the coalition went and talked with the president time and time again, while the representatives of the opposition are still not ready for negotiation.”