Israel President Says Judicial Compromise ‘Closer’ as Protests Escalate

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Israel President Says Judicial Compromise ‘Closer’ as Protests Escalate

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday said a compromise in the government's judicial overhaul plan could be imminent even as protests against the reform continued to spread.

Local media circulated a letter by 10 former air force chiefs to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning of the "grave and tangible" threat posed by the judicial overhaul plan, a day after reservists said they would not turn up for training in protest.

In a statement late on Monday, Netanyahu criticized the threats to refuse military service, which he said endangered Israel's existence.

On the battlefield, soldiers have stood united "throughout all of Israel's wars, regardless of the struggles and disagreements among us," he said, speaking from a Border Police base in the occupied West Bank settlement of Beit Horon.

"There is room for protest, there is room for disagreements, for expressing opinions, but there is no room for refusal."

Although the presidency is a ceremonial post, Herzog convened 100 heads of authorities for an emergency meeting designed to come up with a solution to proposals that have split the country and led to mass nationwide protests.

"We are closer than ever to the possibility of an agreed outline. There are agreements behind the scenes on most things," Herzog said in a statement, without giving details.

Herzog's comments sent financial markets sharply higher even though there was no immediate sign of a deal between the government and opposition.

He said it would now depend on leaders of the ruling coalition and opposition to "put the country and the citizens above everything else" and implement it, adding that his plan works to placate both sides.

Heads of the opposition Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz issued a joint statement in response, commending the president's efforts to reach a compromise but demanding that Netanyahu halt the legislation process to allow for "honest and effective dialogue".

"Israel is on the brink of a national emergency - and Netanyahu refuses to stop," they wrote on Twitter.

Netanyahu did not immediately respond to Herzog's efforts.

Herzog last month floated a compromise plan to spare the country what he described as a "constitutional collapse".

The judicial overhaul plan, which has already received initial parliamentary approval, would give the government greater sway on selecting judges and limit the power of the Supreme Court to strike down legislation.

Critics of the planned law changes say Netanyahu - on trial on graft charges that he denies - is pursuing steps that will hurt Israel's democratic checks and balances, enable corruption and bring diplomatic isolation.

Proponents say the changes are needed to curb what they deem an activist judiciary that interferes in politics.

Lapid has called for compromise talks and a freeze of the legislation for 60 days but Netanyahu said he would only agree to negotiations without preconditions.

Meanwhile, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir claimed that some protest leaders were plotting to assassinate both himself and Netanyahu.

In an interview on Monday, Ben-Gvir noted that he doesn’t want to generalize and that “most of (the protesters) are good and decent people, but there are those among them who say that Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu should be murdered.”

“There are leftist anarchists who some time ago crossed the red line and are planning to kill me and the prime minister,” he alleged.

Senior police and intelligence officials denied that such a plot exists.

An unnamed senior police official told Kan 11 website that he was unaware of the intelligence cited by Ben-Gvir that protesters were planning a political murder.

“We have no intelligence information about the demonstrators threatening to kill the prime minister or the minister of national security. We also checked what other intelligence agencies (the Shin Bet) have, there is no such threat,” the official said.

Responding to the claims, Lapid called Ben-Gvir a liar and a “clown.”

In a series of tweets, he accused him of “inventing ‘intelligence materials’ that do not exist. This is not only ridiculous, but it is also dangerous.”

National Unity party leader Benny Gantz called on Netanyahu to fire Ben-Gvir “before it is too late”.

“A person [Ben Gvir] who was involved in [Jewish] terror instead of being drafted into the army is delegitimizing patriotic protesters,” Gantz said in a tweet.

Protest leaders were quick to reject Ben-Gvir's claims, urging Netanyahu to sack him.



IAEA: Iran Plans New Uranium-enrichment Expansion

Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during a meeting between Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and nuclear scientists and personnel of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during a meeting between Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and nuclear scientists and personnel of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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IAEA: Iran Plans New Uranium-enrichment Expansion

Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during a meeting between Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and nuclear scientists and personnel of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian centrifuges are seen on display during a meeting between Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and nuclear scientists and personnel of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), in Tehran, Iran June 11, 2023. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

Iran has informed the UN nuclear watchdog that it plans to install more than 6,000 extra uranium-enriching centrifuges at its enrichment plants and bring more of those already in place online, a confidential report by the watchdog said on Thursday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency report seen by Reuters details what Iran meant when it said it would add thousands of centrifuges in response to a resolution against it that the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors passed last week at the request of Britain, France, Germany and the United States.
More enrichment capacity means Iran can enrich uranium more quickly, potentially increasing the nuclear proliferation risk. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons but Western powers say there is no civil explanation for enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% that is weapons grade, which no other country has done without producing a nuclear bomb.
The only enrichment level specified for new centrifuges was 5% purity, far from the 60% Iran is already producing. The lower purity, particularly at its Fordow site, could be seen as a conciliatory move by Iran as it seeks common ground with European powers before the return of US President-elect Donald Trump, though enrichment levels can be changed easily later.
Iran already has well over 10,000 centrifuges operating at two underground plants at Natanz and Fordow and an above-ground pilot plant at Natanz. The report outlined plans to install 32 more cascades, or clusters, of more than 160 machines each and a massive cascade of up to 1,152 advanced IR-6 machines.
At the same time, the number of cascades Iran plans to install vastly outnumbers those that are already installed and that Iran said it would now bring online by feeding them with uranium feedstock, which the IAEA verified it had yet to do.
"The Agency has determined and shared with Iran the changes required to the intensity of its inspection activities at FFEP (Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant) following the commissioning of the cascades," the report said, referring to Iran's plan to bring eight recently installed IR-6 cascades there online.
Fordow is particularly closely watched because it is dug into a mountain and Iran is currently enriching to up to 60% there. The only other plant where it is doing that is the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz.
Just before last week's quarterly meeting of the IAEA board, Iran offered to cap its stock of uranium enriched to up to 60%, but diplomats said it was conditional on the board not passing a resolution against Iran.
Although the IAEA verified Iran was slowing enrichment at that highest level and called it "a concrete step in the right direction", the board passed the resolution regardless, repeating a call on Iran to improve cooperation with the IAEA.
Thursday's report said Iran had finished installing the last two cascades of IR-2m centrifuges in a batch of 18 at its vast underground Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, and that it planned to bring all 18 online, though the IAEA verified on Nov. 26 that no uranium had been fed into them.
Iran also told the agency it intended to install 18 extra cascades of IR-4 centrifuges at that Natanz plant, each with 166 machines, the report said.
At the above-ground pilot plant at Natanz, Iran informed the IAEA it planned to take various steps that suggested it would increase the number of full, rather than small or intermediate, cascades there, which could produce more enriched uranium.
It also said it planned to install one cascade of up to 1,152 IR-6 centrifuges at that pilot plant, which could be the biggest cascade by far in Iran yet.