Chief Of PM's Office Appeared To Suggest That Judicial Overhaul Was "Going To Disappear"

Yossi Shelley, Director General of the Prime Minister's Office, told public radio Kan today that "we have to stop talking about [the judicial overhaul" and talk about other issues," such as the Eilat port and the Ashkelon gas pipeline. Questioned by the reporter, Shelley said that we should "stop talking about it, it's going to disappear anyway."

• The initial interpretation seemed to be that Shelley flagged the potential for quietly burying the contentious reforms, a scenario which had been discussed in the local media but would draw the ire of hardliners in Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition.
• The Times of Israel reported that Shelley has since issued a statement clarifying that he only meant to say that the government is dealing with many other issues at the same time rather than that the judicial reforms should disappear from the conversation.
• The shekel staged a sharp rally this morning, with USD/ILS shedding more than 1% at some point. The rate bottomed out around ILS3.7000 and corrected the earlier move to last trade almost 0.8% below Monday's close.