As unity talks continue Monday in an effort to reach an agreement before Blue and White Head Benny Gantz loses the baton, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear there are still some points of contention.
The prime minister vowed that in any agreement he would not give up the control over the Judiciary committee, which selects Israel's Supreme Court judges. Blue and White is pushing to have this under the auspices of MK Avi Nissenkorn.
He also said he would not give up on annexation of the West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu made the statements during a phone meeting with Yamina Party head Natali Bennett and other party leaders.
The prime minister claimed that Gantz's' representatives had recanted agreements made before Yair Lapid's and Moshe (Bogie) Yaalon's secession, including ones regarding the right-wing bloc's veto power in the committee.
Yamina responded, saying they "express their support for the prime minister for maintaining the red lines of the right-wing bloc on the issues of sovereignty and judicial selection."
They added that "leaving the committee [in the hands of] the Left would be a grave mistake that would have effect for generations and would bring the Judicial Revolution of [former Supreme Court heads Aharon] Barak and [Dorit] Beinish.""Gantz should keep the agreements that were reached on the matter and remember that he is the head of a minority party with 17 MKs, compared to Netanyahu, who is leading a 59-seat bloc," Yamina concluded.
In the mid-1990s, the Knesset passed a new set of Basic Laws forming a quasi-constitution and bill of rights.Basic Laws have the power to trump regular Knesset laws and government policy.Following the Knesset's investing the Supreme Court with this additional tool, the court started to declare more Knesset laws and government policies unconstitutional than it had previously, though in 25 years the total number of Knesset laws voided is still only in the dozens.The political Right believed the Supreme Court took its judicial review too far and has flirted with passing laws to rollback judicial review, but has not followed through with these threats to date.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this article.