Israeli President Isaac Herzog launched a plan for compromise on Israel’s deeply divisive judicial reforms this week along with a stark warning that “real civil war” was possible — but his proposal was rejected by the right.

Addressing the nation on Wednesday, the president said: “I’m about to say words I’ve never said before. If anyone thinks that… bloodshed is a line we will never cross, they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

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The Knesset

He said he was shocked by what he had heard from Israelis in recent weeks on the reform bill, which has passed its first reading and would allow a one-vote Knesset majority to override Supreme Court rulings: “I want to tell you something from the heart, and I very much hope that it will also penetrate your hearts.

"In my life, in the worst nightmares, I never thought I would hear such words, even if it is from a very small minority of people. I heard real, deep hatred. I heard people — from all the parties — saying that the idea of blood in the streets no longer shocks them.”

Herzog’s plan would have given the coalition more control over the appointment of new judges, more limits on the Supreme Court’s powers to intervene in government policy and set a bar of two-thirds of its bench when disqualifying legislation.

Half an hour after Herzog’s speech ended, however, the Likud-led coalition voiced its disapproval.