Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich on Sunday evening spoke at a conference in Jerusalem ahead of the start of voting in the Knesset on the judicial reform on Monday.

“Tomorrow, we’re getting started, b’ezrat Hashem,” Smotrich began. “Tomorrow the Knesset plenum will approve by a large majority in the first reading the first part of the reform to amend the judicial system…this is the beginning of the way of returning the right to decide on their fate to the people, something that was unjustifiably taken away from them about 30 years ago by Aharon Barak and the judges of the Supreme Court, and it is an exciting day for me personally as well. As the chairman of the Religious Zionist Party, my friends and I worked for many years to promote this reform.”

“I am aware of the concerns of the public in the nation. It is due to disinformation led largely by the media and the opposition…I hear the real anxiety for the Israeli economy among some of them following the campaign. And I tell them that the one who is to blame for this and the one who is preventing dialogue about the reform is one person, the chairman of the opposition Yair Lapid. Yair Lapid is the one who deliberately sabotages any chance of dialogue.

“I can tell you that I personally spoke with President Yitzchak Herzog and that I greatly appreciate his efforts to lead negotiations and a broad agreement, and I expressed my agreement to immediately start a process of negotiations including a willingness to make concessions and compromises. But unfortunately, the one who thwarted the possibility of starting this conversation is Yair Lapid. Yair Lapid is not interested in a broad national consensus. He is not interested in the good of the State of Israel. He is not interested in preventing a split in the nation.

“Yair Lapid wants a civil war in the country. Yair Lapid only cares about Yair Lapid, and petty interests drive him to spread incitement and create division. He wants to create chaos in the State of Israel both in the economic sphere and within the nation because he has yet to recover from his loss in the elections. He is incapable of losing honorably like a man.

“He is unable to overcome the shame of being prime minister for a few months, he is unable to bear the humiliation of winning in trivia quizzes when asked who is the Israeli prime minister who served for the least amount of time and his name is mentioned. And he actually takes out all his personal and political bitterness and frustration on the people of Israel and the State of Israel, on all of us. And I want to tell you one thing: make no mistake, Yair Lapid did not declare war on the coalition, he declared war on each and every one of you. Yair Lapid declared war against the State of Israel.

“I  also heard the words of US Ambassador Tom Nides. We greatly value the friendship and the strong and strategic alliance between Israel and the US. We have always made sure not to interfere in the internal affairs of the United States, so I also expect them not to interfere in our internal affairs such as the legal reform or the division of powers between Defense Minister Yoav Galant and I.

“I can reassure the US ambassador that a major part of the plan was derived from the US judicial system and that the elected officials there have a decisive influence on the selection of Supreme Court judges. This allows the Supreme Court to have judges who represent the people and at the same time remain independent and act according to the rules of the judiciary and the law.

“It works in the USA, it works in many countries in the world, and it is the right thing for the State of Israel.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)