Communications Minister Miki Zohar told Channel 12 News in an interview on Saturday night that the Likud is willing to compromise and negotiate on the judicial reform.
"The Likud and the Minister of Justice are ready for talks and are prepared to make changes to the plan, but no one on the other side of the political map is currently prepared for either dialogue or amendments. They are only interested in stopping the reform," Zohar said.
"The law will be passed in its first reading next week. The second and third readings will take many weeks to pass, if not months. Such a long period is time for dialogue, time for discussions. We will agree to amendments in the reform, but not to stopping it and not to a revolutionary change," he added.
"This reform is something we promised the public. We promised it during the elections and committed to keep this promise - and today we are fulfilling our promise. Unfortunately, a great many from the right, including Likud voters, do not understand the reform," continued Zohar.
Zohar also explained that "over the years we have seen that ministers of justice always change - sometimes from the right and sometimes from the left - but the Judicial Selection Committee always has a guaranteed majority for the left. When the left is in power there is no problem and judges from the left are appointed, but when the right is in power it is the same. The left continues to appoint judges."
On the ramming attack in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem, he said, "There is a way to deal with terrorism. A week ago, at the government meeting, I clearly said that what we need to do is create clear parameters so that every terrorist knows that it is not he who will pay the price, but his immediate family. It is not an easy task, but there is no choice. You have to harm his family's land, their livelihood, and you have to bring about a situation where they are all expelled from their land and their homes. When you want to preserve human life, you have to do actions that go beyond what is acceptable. True, it is not easy, but sometimes you have to do extreme actions to prevent extreme actions.There is no other way to solve the form of terrorism."