Netanyahu: Conflict of interests not applicable when national wellbeing at stake

 The government’s judicial reform plan transcends strictly legal issues, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s counsel maintained on Sunday, in response to the contempt of court petition filed at the High Court for his meddling in the plan while on trial himself. They noted that President Yacov Herzog had warned that the reform and the protest movement against its enactment held the potential of civil war; foreign leaders including the US President moreover asked him personally to intervene. The prime minister therefore asked the High Court to throw out the petition since he was duty bound as prime minister to look after the nation’s wellbeing – both with regard to its domestic stability and its foreign relations.