DEBKAfile

The law revoking the High Court’s power to disqualify decisions by elected authority – on the grounds of “unreasonability” – was carried on Monday, July 24 by 64 to 0. Opposition lawmakers were absent. Earlier, opposition leader Yair Lapid announced talks on a compromise version to soften the law had broken off.

The law revoking the High Court’s power to disqualify decisions by elected authority on the grounds of “unreasonability” was carried on Monday 64 to 0. Opposition lawmakers were absent. Earlier, opposition leader Yair Lapid announced talks on a compromise version to soften the law had broken off. He assured the hundreds of military reservists, who vowed to abstain from voluntary service if the law was carried, that the High Court would overturn the measure as undemocratic.

The Knesset began voting Monday on the second and third readings of the government’s judicial reform bill which is designed to curb the High Court’s power to use the “reasonable” criterion for striking down its decisions.” This was the first parliamentary vote to be held on the government’s judicial overhaul program. It takes place in the face of fierce, massive protests by tens of thousands of demonstrators, including reservist members of key IDF units.

Tens of thousands of anti-judicial reform protesters clashed with police Monday morning when they tried to block Knesset entrances to deputies arriving for the noon vote on the second and final readings of the “reasonability” standar bill curtailing High Court powers. Intense behind-the-scenes efforts to reach a compromise formula meanwhile continued. Two main opposition leaders were at odds over tactics.

Yossi Cohen, former Mossad chief, issued an appeal on Sunday to put the debate on the government’s judicial reform plan to dialogue and consensus, as was customary in past controversies. Or put it on ice. This was all the more urgent at a time when every Israeli is in peril from Iran’s pervasive and widening threat.

PM Binyamin Netanyahu was rushed back to hospital early Sunday and fitted with a pacemaker after the monitor implanted a week ago registered a “transient road block.” Asked whether the monitor had served the prime minister’s life, one of the doctors replied, “Absolutely” The Sheba Medical Center disclosed that the prime minister has a history of “heart conduction problems” going back some 20 years..

Compromise formats for the government’s bill to curb the High Court\s powers are offered on Sunday, as tens of thousands of protest marchers converge on the Knesset to disrupt the vote on Monday and Tuesday. The protest movement gained further momentuam as the 1,194 reservist airmen refusing to turn up for duty are joined by 10,000 reservists from other military units.ve duty. The IDF Lt. Gen.

Israel’s air force was rocked back on Friday, July 21, by a letter signed by 1,142 reservist airmen backing to the hilt the protest movement raging against the government’s disputed judicial reforms. This group announced their refusal to turn up for voluntary duty if the reforms are not abandoned. The signatories are fighter jet and helicopter pilots, drone operation crews, air traffic control officers, elite search and rescue personnel and Shaldag commandos.

Surviving more that 27,000 objections, the Knesset Law Committed approved the government’s law to curb the High Court’s use of “reasonability” as grounds for overturning elected government and Knesset decisions. The measure, to be promulgated as a Basic Law, goes to its second and final readings next week, in the face of raging opposition rallies against the government’s entire judicial reform plan, as impinging on democracy, and blunt criticism on the part of US President Joe Biden.

National Security Adviser Tzahi Henegbi Wednesday denied Tom Friedman’s account of US President Joe Biden’s message to PM Binyamin Netanyahu. In his account, The New York Times columnist quoted Biden has telling Netanyahu he must stop legal reform legislation now. However, according to Hanegbi, he asked the prime minister to try and get it through quickly.