by Israel National News
Neither opposition nor coalition expects breakthrough. Meanwhile, passing state budget is priority.
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Senior members of the coalition have stated that judicial reform legislation will not be proceeding unilaterally for at least the first month of the Knesset's summer session.
According to a report on Kan Reshet Bet, the reason for the delay is that the state budget must be passed by the end of May and it is not feasible to advance two major pieces of legislation simultaneously.
Meanwhile, negotiating teams have been continuing to meet to discuss the judicial reforms during Pesach (Passover), under the auspices of the President's Residence. President Isaac Herzog has expressed optimism regarding reaching a compromise, telling the New York Times that, "It’s a potential for a constitutional moment, a moment where we can direct Israel into a stronger and more resilient structure. Something which we didn’t do since our founding 75 years ago."
According to Israel Hayom, talks between the National Unity, Yesh Atid, and Likud parties continued throughout the week-long festival, with various representatives from think-tanks contributing, among them members of Machon Tachlit, the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), Prof. Yaniv Rosenai of Reichman University, and Dr. Aviad Bakshi of the Kohelet Forum.
Discussions first centered on where to begin the negotiations, with the National Unity party insisting that the first item on the agenda should be the composition of the Judicial Selections Committee, as failing to reach an agreement on this matter will mean that no broad consensus will be reached on any other of the main issues. It is unclear how exactly a compromise can be reached on this issue, as the opposition parties have to date stressed that they will not agree to any "politicization" of the committee and will never allow the government to appoint judges (as the Justice Minister's proposals would have).
The Likud party is seeking to commence negotiations on other issues such as the Basic Law: The Judiciary and on limiting the power of the Supreme Court to overturn legislation, in the hope that reaching agreements on preliminary matters will provide impetus to the talks. The opposition's negotiating teams, however, fear that the Likud party is simply seeking to make a few concessions and then break off the talks with the claim that the opposition has stymied any further chance of reaching compromise.
Nonetheless, the expert taskforce negotiating teams have apparently agreed that there will be no agreement on individual issues without a general agreement on the main issues of contention.
Notwithstanding the president's optimism, neither the coalition nor the opposition holds out great hopes for a breakthrough. Coalition officials believe that the reforms will not progress unless agreements are reached, and predict that some minor aspects of the proposals will have to suffice in order to placate right-wing voters. They appear unprepared to once again arouse the ire of the left-wing in the light of the grave security situation. The opposition, for their part, believe that the coalition parties are not really interested in compromise and are simply dragging things out in order to buy time and some peace and quiet on the political front.
Israel National News
Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/369927
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