An Effort to Resolve Israel’s Impasse Stalls on How to Pick Judges

Nevertheless, there were signs on Thursday that some coalition lawmakers — and even Mr. Netanyahu himself — hoped to water down some of the proposals.

At a press briefing in Berlin, where Mr. Netanyahu met with Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, he appeared to suggest that he would be willing to consider less government control over judicial appointments.

“Today, judges in Israel have a veto over the selection of other judges,” he said. “There needs to be some kind of balance in terms of how judges are selected — and at the same time not allow one side to dominate,” he said, without giving more details.

“You want to maintain a balance, but you can’t let that lead to other imbalances,” he said.

Danny Danon, a lawmaker from Mr. Netanyahu’s party, Likud, said on Thursday that the party was listening to its critics and that a compromise would be found. Earlier in the week, a veteran Likud lawmaker, Yuli Edelstein, missed a preliminary vote in Parliament on part of the proposal, a move interpreted as an expression of discomfort with the program.

A third Likud lawmaker, David Bitan, was more explicit. “What we need to do is soften the reform, and we will do it — we have no choice,” Mr. Bitan told Kan, the national broadcaster. “We need to stop the legislation for a week or two,” he added.

But opponents of the overhaul fear such unilateral gestures will only be cosmetic in nature and will maintain its most problematic aspects.

Isabel Kershner and Myra Noveck contributed reporting.