Nobody appears to believe in the future of the negotiations that are being conducted in President Yitzhak Herzog’s residence this week and are scheduled to continue over the intermediary days of Passover.
Israel Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Liberman tweeted on Monday: “I call on the teams of Yesh Atid and the National Camp to drop their illusions and their participation in Bibi’s blame game. It’s time for you to say in a clear voice – we are not cooperating with Netanyahu’s fraud. We do not cooperate with his attempt to melt down the protest.”
Meanwhile, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz have been attacked by Kumi Israel, the “anti-dictatorship struggle,” of plotting to compromise on the composition of the committee to elect judges. Aware that such an attack by the anarchist left could lose him even more virtual Knesset mandates in the polls (he’s already down 17 to 24 versus Gantz), Lapid rushed out a tweet saying, “We have no idea where these far-fetched rumors came from, but there hasn’t been any discussion about the judicial selection committee yet. The issue has not come up yet. We will continue to fight for a democratic and strong Jewish Israel.”
MK Simcha Rothman, the combative chairman of the Knesset Constitution Committee on Monday suggested there’s no chance any real compromise would come out of the talks, saying “the president made a serious mistake in his conduct that turned him, in the eyes of an entire political camp, into someone who can no longer be a fair mediator.”
The compromise outline that was presented on March 15 by President Herzog disregarded several cogent compromise proposals that had been put on his desk and went instead with what appeared to be a solution that was dictated to him by Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, if anything, making the court’s share in the committee to elect judges even more dominant.
Speaking to Reshet Bet Radio on Monday, Rothman said regarding the chance of reaching agreements through Herzog’s mediation: “I hope, but I remain cautiously optimistic. It takes two to tango. This is a negotiation between the opposition and the coalition – in my best dreams, we are all marching with the reform into the sunset with unicorns flying in the air. But in reality, there are those who, during the negotiations, go to demonstrations and declare clearly that their goal is to overthrow the government.”
