In an opinion column he published today on the Haaretz newspaper portal, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak called on President Herzog to openly express his opinion on the legal reform and stated that the President must tell US President Biden the "truth" about "radical" ministers in the Netanyahu government, the protest movement, "and the poison machine that will continue to incite", as he called it.
Barak wrote to President Herzog: "The talks on the legal reform reached an impasse due to the lack of trust. And how could it be any other way? Why should opposition leaders compromise just so they can be the last to be devoured by the coup d'état? If the dictatorship wins, we will all lose except for Benjamin Netanyahu, his coalition partners, and his followers. If democracy wins, a sigh of relief will be heard from one end of the world to the other - from women and LGBT people, Arabs and Holocaust survivors, pilots and cyber warriors, high-tech people and field workers, Jews and lovers of Israel in every corner of the world as well as Washington."
The former premier claimed that: "it is no longer possible to suppress the fact that, as with an autoimmune disease, the perpetrators of the coup d'état are attacking the foundations of democracy and undermining the common good of the entire public. Only a blind, naïve, or scornful person would not see (Netanyahu's) private interests, the abomination of a greedy sector, and the objectives of a dark racist-messianic vision, which are hidden behind the coup."
"Dear President, we all hope your visit is as successful as possible. In a week you will return to us and face heavy challenges. In the past you said that when the time comes you will take a position in the dispute that you are trying to bridge. I implore you to gather strength and do it now. Tell the people where you stand because you're not capable of doing otherwise," he concluded.