Opposition leaders Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz accused the government of bowing to extremists in seeking to push forward the bill reducing the courts' ability to apply the "reasonableness standard" today (Monday).
“This is a government that has lost all restraint. Canceling the judicial test of reasonableness in the format they have submitted to the Knesset says one thing: the law doesn’t apply to them,” Lapid said at the beginning of the Yesh Atid faction meeting today.
“They can fire all the gatekeepers, from the attorney general on down, and switch them out with obedient and subservient puppets who won’t interfere with them when they corrupt the country,” he added. "This is what they want. That there be laws for all citizens, but the laws will not apply to them. If they break the law, it will be impossible to sue them and the court will not be able to do anything about it."
"This day will forever be etched in the annals of the Knesset and the State of Israel," the opposition leader declared.
He further accused the government of refusing to negotiate on the judicial reform issue under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog and of harming ordinary Israelis and the economy by pushing forward on judicial reform.
National Unity party chairman Benny Gantz delivered a similar message at his faction meeting.
“I am disturbed that Netanyahu is sacrificing the strategic needs of the State of Israel in order to please Yariv Levin, Smotritch, and Ben-Gvir,” Gantz said.
Gantz further warned against the government's plans for construction in the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, given the Biden Administration's opposition to all construction in those communities.
“This is a betrayal of the security of Israel’s citizens and its strategic goals," he said, adding that upsetting the Americans in such a manner could pose “a threat to Israel’s security supremacy in the region.”
Gantz called for the resumption of the negotiations on the judicial reform issue at the President's Residence, arguing that any chance to reach a negotiated solution, no matter how small, must be taken.