Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich believes that the opposition is not looking to reach an understanding on the judicial reform issue.
"The opposition's threats to unilaterally end the talks at the president's house reveal their true face," says Smotrich after the secret votes to elect representatives to the committee for the selection of judges.
He criticized the opposition and claimed that "they are not looking for compromises and agreements, they want to overthrow the government. We will not surrender, we will not fold and we will not accept unilateral dictates."
"We will not agree under any circumstances to freeze the core of the reform," he clarified. "We really want to legislate by consensus, but if the opposition ends the talks at the president's residence, we will legislate independently in accordance with the unequivocal mandate we received from a large majority of the Israeli public in the last elections."
An attempt to elect representatives to the judicial selection committee fell through today when the coalition opposed all candidates, leaving none of them with enough votes to form the committee and pushing off the appointment by another month.
Following this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the opposition parties to enter into real negotiations: "Gantz said yesterday that if the coalition elects two representatives to the committee for selecting judges, he will end the talks. Well, that didn't happen, but he continues to threaten."
"So I say to the opposition, stop with the threats, stop with the excuses, after three months of rejecting every compromise proposal we bring - sit down with us seriously, enter into real negotiations and we will finally reach agreements.",
The leaders of the coalition called for the continuation of the talks at the president's residence and criticized MK Gottlieb (Likud) for not withdrawing her candidacy.
"The Prime Minister, all the heads of the coalition and the Likud faction, are not ready to accept a situation in which a member of the Knesset acts on his own accord and violates the coalition agreements, especially on this sensitive issue. That is why the heads of the coalition decided, without any other choice, to activate the clause in the Knesset's statutes that allows the situation to be left as it is and not to choose any candidate, until new elections are held within 30 days"
They mentioned Gantz's comments yesterday: "Just yesterday Gantz said he would end the talks if the coalition representatives were elected. This did not happen, and Gantz still continues to call for the talks to be blown up. The coalition leaders are calling on the opposition to stop issuing ultimatums and to stop making excuses to blow up the talks."
"After three months of stubborn refusal on the part of the opposition to any proposal brought forward by the representatives of the coalition, including proposals that were submitted in the last few days and received no response at all, the leaders of the coalition call on the opposition to continue the talks and reach agreements without delay," the statement said.
A member of the National Unity negotiation team commented: "Netanyahu today chose petty politics over responsibility for the country. Fearing the extremists in his party, he violated an agreement made in the president's residence, chose a petty delaying tactic, and the result is that the talks in an attempt to reach agreements are being stopped. The responsibility is on him."
"We came with clean hands and we really tried. He who tries to save the State of Israel is a patriot, not a sucker. We knew exactly who we were talking to and giving to and we took care and responsibility, but most of all we understood that we were responsible to all the citizens of Israel, the vast majority of whom are seeking broad agreements. We are committed to them Always. Today, there is a great danger that the alliance of extremists will win, and that those who want a crisis and a rupture will win over those who want economic and security stability and most of all - to live here together," Tropper said.