PM Netanyahu at the Israel Cabinet meeting. Photo: GPO/Amos Ben Gershom.
We salute the Iranian citizens who are heroically fighting for their freedom. They are sacrificing their lives for basic human rights. They are revealing to the entire world the true face of the oppressive regime in Tehran, a regime that threatens its citizens, the countries in the region and the entire world.
Following are Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting today (Sunday, 8 January 2023):
“Over the weekend, the Iranian terrorist regime executed two young Iranian citizens who demonstrated against the regime’s tyranny. Israel strongly condemns these abhorrent murders.
We salute the Iranian citizens who are heroically fighting for their freedom. They are sacrificing their lives for basic human rights. They are revealing to the entire world the true face of the oppressive regime in Tehran, a regime that threatens its citizens, the countries in the region and the entire world.
I have been saying this for 20 years and today I am pleased that more and more people and governments around the world understand this.
Today’s Cabinet meeting will be dedicated mainly to appointments that will facilitate the functioning of the government. Ministers are entering their offices and are determined, each and every one of them, to advance the policy for which they were chosen.
However, as I said here a week ago, we will not wait.
In the diplomatic sphere: The Security Cabinet convened last Thursday and decided on a series of measures against the Palestinian Authority (PA) for advancing a radical anti-Israel decision at the UN.
These steps include sanctions against senior Palestinian officials, the offsetting of terrorist funds and the freezing of Palestinian construction projects in Area C, which contravene the explicit commitments that the PA has taken upon itself.
We have established a different government with a different policy, and everyone will see this.
In the economic sphere: Over the weekend, I held a preliminary discussion about the immediate emergency measures that we will take, even before the budget discussions, to fight against the cost-of-living that has skyrocketed due to the inaction and the mistakes of the previous government.
The finance minister and I will present these emergency steps very soon.
In the legal sphere: The justice minister has presented the first stage of the reform that he is planning.
The claim that the reform is the end of democracy is without foundation.
Until recently, many people from all parts of the political spectrum have recognized the need to restore the balance between the three authorities.
‘There has been a hostile takeover by the proponents of judicial activism over political discourse and the decision-making world in Israel.’ There are not my words but those of Yair Lapid, when he was Finance Minister, in 2014.
‘The balance between the authorities needs to include the override clause. The last word needs to be that of the Knesset because the Knesset represents the people.’ These are also not my words but those of the previous Justice Minister, Gideon Saar, also from 2014.
The truth is that the balance between the authorities in the governing system has been violated in the past two decades, especially in recent years. This is an exceptional phenomenon without peer in the democratic world – neither in the US, nor Western Europe nor in Israel, in its first 50 years.
Was Israel in its first 50 years, before the activist revolution, not an exemplary democracy? Are the US and the countries of Western Europe, in which there is no far-reaching judicial activism such as ours, not exemplary democracies today?
The effort to restore the correct balance between the authorities is not the destruction of democracy but the strengthening of democracy. However, there is no doubt that this needs to be done responsibly and sagaciously, and this is what we will do.
I have heard about the proposal to establish a public committee to discuss reform of the judicial system. I do not recall hearing a similar proposal to establish such a committee from the outgoing transitional government when it signed a capitulation agreement to hand over territory and economic assets of the State of Israel to Hezbollah. It did not even bother to submit the proposal to the Knesset for discussion, as required by law. We will act differently.
The reform presented by the justice minister will be discussed seriously and in depth by the Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee, where all opinions – without exception – will be heard. This is the appropriate, natural and legal forum for this in-depth discussion.
This is also the opportunity to say something else. I do not know if you saw them but I was simply shocked. Over the weekend, I saw posters that compared the justice minister to the leader of the Nazis and spoke of the Sixth Reich. This is wild incitement that passed without condemnation by the opposition or the main media outlets.
This must stop immediately and must be strongly condemned by everyone. A serious and substantive discussion – however pointed – must be held about the reform.
I would like to emphasize: We received a clear and strong mandate from the public to carry out what we promised during the elections and this is what we will do. This is the implementation of the will of the voters and this is the essence of democracy.”