Far-right minister says president ‘100% aligned with the left’; Gantz: Herzog working day and night to prevent ‘destruction of democracy’
By TOI STAFF and CARRIE KELLER-LYNN Today, 11:16 am
(L) Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 1, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) (R) President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem, June 14, 2023 (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich branded President Isaac Herzog a “leftist” on Tuesday, charging that the president was therefore unable to act as an unbiased mediator in talks for a potential compromise on judicial reform.
“I remind you that the president published his outline [for judicial reform] unilaterally. He is 100 percent aligned with the left. The president is a leftist, and unfortunately he is failing to be a fair mediator,” the far-right Smotrich told ultra-Orthodox radio station Kol BaRama, referring to Herzog’s quickly rejected proposal made in March, ahead of the start of the compromise talks overseen by the president.
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