Netanyahu rejects judicial compromise, deepening crisis

By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has swiftly rejected a compromise proposal aimed at resolving a standoff over the future of the country’s legal system. The rejection deepens the crisis over a plan that has roiled the country and drawn international criticism. The country’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, presented the compromise in a televised address Wednesday. Netanyahu’s plan, which aims to weaken the country’s Supreme Court, has sparked more than two months of mass protests. Herzog said he had consulting with a broad cross section of the country and suggested that Israel’s survival depends on reaching a compromise. But Netanyahu quickly turned it down, saying it would only perpetuate the current situation.