A day after presenting his so-called "People's Plan" for compromise on judicial reform, President Isaac Herzog responded to his critics, protesting that his outline is merely a "starting-point" for debate and not the last word on the matter.
Speaking at the annual conference of the National Food Security Initiative, the President said: "It is essential for me to state 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," he continued. "The 'People's Plan' that I presented is a suggestion, a basis for discussion which both sides can change and amend. This isn't the end of the discussion, but rather the beginning."
This differs from what Herzog suggested just a day ago, when he stressed that the plan should be looked upon as a single unit.
Herzog emphasized that, "Everything possible is being done to reach broad agreement in Israeli society, to avoid in-fighting, to calm things down, and to achieve dialogue. It's all based on the love that we see here."
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was among those harshly criticizing President Herzog's outline. "I still entertain the hope that in just a moment, a messenger will arive from the President's Residence telling us there was a glitch and that the President accidentally sent out 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 proposed 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."
Meanwhile, veteran political commentator Yaakov Bardugo alleged that pressures brought to bear on the president led to him adopting virtually wholesale the agenda of the Supreme Court President, Esther Hayut, calling Herzog "a marionette on strings." He added that on Saturday night, two senior jurists, emissaries of the Supreme Court justices, entered the negotiations, leading to Wednesday evening's result.