Amid attempts to negotiate a compromise to the judicial reform with coalition leaders, opposition leader Yair Lapid spoke about the fight against the legal revolution of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, and about his red lines; "I am not negotiating with people who put a gun to my head," he clarified.

In response to the question by a radio host who was interviewing Lapid on the progress being made through President Herzog’s mediation, he said: "I spoke with the president more than once and it is not the first time I have been with him even in recent days, because we are trying to save this country from collapsing into chaos. After all, what will happen here, in the end, is not only that we will not be a democracy, we won't be one nation either, and we have to try to stop that. What they proposed was not dialogue, it was so frivolous that they even forgot, didn't bother to inform the president that they were inviting themselves to his home.”

Lapid added that "they [coalition members] were rightly frightened by the demonstrations because there were hundreds of thousands of Israelis there who are fighting for their country and don't look like they're going to give up, and they did some kind of public relations trick in their own way and pretended to invite us to talk. If they don't stop the legislation, then there's nothing to talk about. I'm not negotiating with people who put a gun to my head. There is no such incident. They need to stop the legislation and go to a presidential committee that will conduct a proper procedure."

“Yariv Levin and Simcha Rothman (who chairs the Knesset’s law committee) are dogmatists who are unwilling to compromise. As for Netanyahu, most signs are that he is out to get the judicial system and take control of the media.” @emmanuelnavon https://t.co/Jj9H1xhCbw

— Martin Kramer (@Martin_Kramer) February 13, 2023

He first stated that the idea of a presidential committee, through which the two sides have been discussing, was his initiative. "I did it to try to find a positive solution. I didn't tell the president what to say and what not to say, but the president also told them ‘you need to stop the legislation so that there will be a clean and decent procedure here’. It's impossible to change the country in an improper procedure".

After the meeting with Lapid, Herzog also met with Benny Gantz, and with the chairman of the Knesset's Constitution Committee, MK Simcha Rotman, one of the leaders of the judicial reform. At the end of each of the meetings, Herzog published the same statement, which read: "The two discussed In the President's outline as presented in his speech to the nation. The president repeated his call for talks and reached as broad agreements as possible to benefit the State of Israel and its citizens." Herzog intends to continue the meetings to get the parties to accept the proposed outline.

Yair Lapid & Benny Ganz: Please please agree to meet Levin & Rotman WITHOUT any pre-conditions. You MUST find a solution out of this impasse IMMEDIATELY for the sake of the country. The longer this happens the worse it'll become & you don't wanna be blamed for missing the train. https://t.co/iKzaSaVdmW

— David L. Young (@ly70473845) February 14, 2023

Rotman, for his part, reiterated the desire to talk, however, he also stated that the opposition should know that there is not much room to change much of the legislation. The insistence of the coalition that they want to have a dialogue but also that the bill will likely not be changed is the driving force behind Gantz's reason for not meeting. In an interview with Channel 12 News Anchor Yonit Levy, Gantz outlined the dangers of the legislation and alluded to the insincere nature of the coalition's overtures to negotiate.