A senior official in the coalition said this evening (Thursday) that the government must advance the judicial reform legislation with the understanding that the talks at the President's Residence will not yield a compromise.
"The opposition got what it wanted yesterday and yet it still blew up the talks. There is a limit. The coalition has waited long enough," said the source.
He also sent an explicit threat to the opponents of the judicial reforms within the Likud. "A minister or MK in Likud who opposes the reform legislation and prevents it because of personal motives of scores with Netanyahu or jealousy of the support that Levin has, will pay the full price in Likud."
Earlier, coalition MKs commented on the election yesterday of Yesh Atid MK Karin Elharrar to the judicial selection committee.
Minister Miri Regev called for consequences for MK Tali Gottlieb, who ran for the position of the coalition's representative on the judicial selection committee even when Prime Minister Netanyahu sought to push off the vote for up to one month. "MK Gottlieb's conduct can't be forgotten. We can't allow a situation where a coalition MK does not align with us."
MK Yaakov Asher added: "If they do a polygraph on the MKs on the vote last night, there will be an earthquake in both the coalition and the opposition."
Opposition member MK Ze'ev Elkin (National Unity party) said that he knows of at least five members of the coalition who voted for Elharrar: "It was coordinated with us, we knew about them in advance," he said.
The Likud party earlier sent a message to its MKs and ministers responding to the disastrous vote for the coalition yesterday.
"Since there are MKs who act on their own accord, the leaders of the coalition sought to postpone the appointments for another 30 days, in order to prevent the violation of the coalition agreements and to preserve the integrity of the government," the party's message reads.
"For the past three months, we have worked with all our might to reach agreements at the President's Residence. The coalition factions have come a long way to the other side, even in the last few days we have submitted detailed proposals and they have refrained from even responding to them.
"Lapid and Gantz threatened to blow up the talks if an opposition member was not appointed to the committee. An opposition member was appointed and they nevertheless decided to blow up the talks. Gantz and Lapid proved that all the talks were just a smoke screen for them, they did not come with clean hands and they had never had any intention to reach a compromise. Gantz and Lapid have no sense of national responsibility, they don't care about the people and the country, they don't care about the economy and all they want is to bring down the government.
"After Lapid and Gantz announced the freezing of the talks, the heads of the coalition will gather and decide on the timetables and further details of the egalitarian and just liberal legislation to correct the judicial system. The people of Israel know that corrections are needed in our judicial system and we will carry them out," the document states.