In speech, Herzog warns Israel ‘on the verge of constitutional and social collapse’

President Isaac Herzog starts what his office has called “a special address to the nation,” saying that Israel is “in fateful days.”

Herzog says he has been working in recent weeks to seek a “broad agreement” on the government’s contentious proposals to overhaul the judiciary, adding that he has been urging the sides not to adopt a zero-sum approach.

“We will all lose, the State of Israel will lose,” if no consensual agreement is reached, the president says in the televised speech, which comes as the primetime nightly news broadcasts begin.

Noting a series of recent deadly terror attacks, Herzog says the family of one victim asked him “to do everything to stop the madness.”

He says the divide is no longer just a political crisis, warning that “we are on the verge of constitutional and social collapse.”