Israel’s president urges Netanyahu to delay legal overhaul

By JOSEF FEDERMAN
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s president has appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay a contentious plan to overhaul the country’s judicial system and instead seek a compromise with his political opponents. President Isaac Herzog made the appeal Sunday in a prime-time nationwide address a day before Netanyahu’s coalition is to take its first steps toward implementing the plan in a parliamentary vote. The proposed reforms have triggered mass demonstrations, opposition from wide swaths of Israeli society and even drawn a veiled warning from President Joe Biden. Herzog in his speech said the Israeli nation was “in a moment before a collision, even a violent collision.” There was no immediate response from Netanyahu’s office.