Weinstein Says Restaurant Can Avoid Rabbanut Hechsher

There might be changes coming to the Rabbanut kashrus situation.
The law until now has been that private hechshers can only be used above and beyond, rather than instead of, the Rabbanut kashrus. And, a restaurant cannot advertise itself as kosher without a Rabbanut hechsher.
Yehuda Weinstein, the Attorney General of Israel, has announced that food establishments are no longer prohibited from using private hechshers - and they can do so without first having a Rabbanut. The only limitation seems to be that they cannot actually call themselves "kosher", but can say they are "under alternative supervision".
The Rabbanut is still trying to figure out how to respond and whether or not this will hold up legally.
The decision came as a result of an appeal made by two businessmen to the Supreme Court. They wanted to be allowed to call their restaurants "kosher" even without having a Rabbanut supervision.
The bigger problem might actually not be the kashrut issue, but the political one. In the coalition agreement between Likud and UTJ, there is an agreement that says there would be no changes to the status quo in the kashrut issues of the country. Will this cause a political crisis? Can they circumvent Weinstein because of the coalition agreement/ Does a law need to be changed to work it out?
source: Kikar and Bechadrei
It seems though a solution might have been found. Kikar is now reporting that Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef and MK Aryeh Deri have come up with a solution, and have put it in their coalition agreement. They have stipulated that the Rabbanut will remain the sole entity authorized to supervise kashrut, and it will be solidified in law. And, Shas has already submitted a new proposed law to that effect.
The proposed law states that a restaurant cannot call itself kosher, or indicate kashrus in any other way even without using the word "kosher" .
The situation might have been resolved by this fairly quickly, even before it really became a problem, or maybe not. The law still has to pass.
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