During his visit to Austria, President Yitzhak Herzog met this morning (Tuesday) with members of the local Jewish community and addressed the discussions between the coalition and the opposition on the topic of judicial reform. In this context, the President stated, "Reality necessitates reaching an agreement."
In his speech, the President said, "There are moments in crises of this kind when leadership is required to seize the rare opportunity to extend a hand and reach an agreement. This is one of those moments. We are approaching the New Year, the High Holidays of Tishrei, and we have already been in a deep crisis for nine months that dramatically affects our lives, significantly impacts our security, influences our economy, affects our society, and alters our human behavior. Enough, we've had enough."
"There is a need to come together for broad understandings, it is possible," added the President. He continued, "It's not about timetables, not of the court, and not of the Knesset – it's about reality, and reality requires a tremendous effort to reach an agreement."
"I call upon the leaders to take responsibility, to look at reality in the eye, to reach out, to make an effort, not to postpone, to come together and make every effort to try and reach a broad agreement so that this crisis, which deals with issues of judicial reform and relations between various authorities, different branches of power, will pass from the world, and we can return to debates, clashes, and discussions on all the other issues that occupy Israeli society – some of them longstanding and some of them new, as is customary in any democracy."
The President referred to his efforts to lead an agreement between the sides and said, "Everything I have been doing in recent weeks is aimed at preserving Israeli democracy, defending it, but also creating a broader mechanism for understanding and balance between the various branches of power – it is possible, and it requires responsibility."