TEL AVIV – Days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to carry out the first part of his plan to weaken Israel’s Supreme Court, President Joe Biden urged him “not to rush” legislation that has divided so deeply to Israel.
It was an unusually direct intervention by a US president in the affairs of one of America’s closest allies.
By Wednesday, there was little indication that Biden’s words, as described New York Times columnist Thomas FriedmanNetanyahu’s political calculus had changed.
Under intense pressure from far-right members of his government, Netanyahu says he plans to introduce the first part of the legislation in parliament on Sunday. This despite massive street protests that have brought parts of the country to a standstill, and a growing number of military reservists who say they will refuse to report for duty if the plan goes ahead.
The bill would strip the Supreme Court of its ability to strike down government decisions as “unreasonable.” Netanyahu argues that the vague term gives unelected judges too much power to stop the political agenda of an elected government. But critics say it is one of the few checks on the power of the government, which has a majority in Israel’s unicameral parliament.
Earlier this year, the court used the reasonableness test to block Netanyahu from appointing an ally convicted of tax fraud to a senior cabinet post.
“Obviously, this is an area on which Israelis have strong views, even in a long-standing protest movement that demonstrates the vitality of Israel’s democracy, which must remain at the core of our bilateral relationship,” Biden told Friedman.
“Finding consensus in controversial policy areas means taking your time,” he continued. “For significant changes, that is essential. So my recommendation to the Israeli leadership is not to rush. I think the best outcome is to continue to seek the broadest possible consensus here.”
Friedman, a longtime supporter of Israel who has expressed growing alarm at the country’s direction under Netanyahu, said Biden invited him to the Oval Office on Tuesday for an hour and 15-minute meeting to make his message “clear.” like glass for all Israelis. ”
The columnist described Biden as “deeply concerned about the stability and future of Israel,” though he did not quote Netanyahu as directly expressing that sentiment. (The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friedman’s article.)
Israeli protesters have intensified their calls for the Biden administration to intervene more forcefully in the country’s political crisis. Crowds gathered outside the US embassy building in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, calling on the White House to do more.
“President Biden, we love you, save us!” he read a post from a protester carrying an American flag.
But some protesters also expressed frustration that Biden agreed this week to meet Netanyahu in the United States later this year.
Netanyahu took office in December, but Biden has so far refused to invite him to the White House, in what was widely seen in Israel as a sign of US opposition to judicial reform.
By contrast, Biden’s decision to send an invitation to the US offered Netanyahu a political victory days before the parliamentary vote.
“What message is this sending? A tyrant seeks to dismantle democracy and you invite him to the Oval Office? This is unacceptable and we urge the US administration to continue to support Israelis who are tirelessly fighting for Israeli democracy,” Josh Drill, a spokesman for the protest, told NBC News.
Israeli opposition politicians and analysts have repeatedly warned that the US-Israeli relationship was becoming strained by disagreement over Netanyahu’s court plans.
“For the first time in the history of relations between the two countries, the United States is concerned that Israel is no longer a democracy,” said the Institute for National Security Studies, a leading Israeli think tank. “Tension in the special relationship between Jerusalem and Washington is not new, but calling into question such a fundamental anchor of that relationship is an unprecedented development.”
Concerns about worsening ties are compounded by a growing sense that Biden’s Democratic Party is drifting further away from Israel, and Democratic lawmakers are particularly uneasy about his treatment of Palestinians. Those concerns were on vivid display this week after Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called Israel “a racist state,” though she later backtracked.
Joel Rubin, a former State Department official who previously led the American Jewish Congress, said that shift is likely to continue. He noted that older politicians like Biden, who spent decades in the Senate fostering close ties with Israel, are gradually being replaced by younger counterparts whose views on Israel were shaped after the Oslo Accords of the 1990s and the two Palestinian uprisings. , or intifadas, events that reinforced US support for Israel.
“Biden may well be the last,” Rubin said in an interview. “Most of the rest of the American political leadership will be brought up in the post-Oslo, post-Intifada world and will not have the same kind of sentimental attachment to Israel that Joe Biden has.”
Despite the tensions playing out in public over Netanyahu’s approach, current and former US officials have stressed that, in practical matters, the Biden administration has continued to work to advance Israel’s diplomatic and security interests while preserving the role America’s traditional position as Israel’s stalwart ally.
Behind the scenes, top US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, are working to broker a landmark normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Last month, the administration appointed former US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro to a newly created post aimed at expanding the Abraham Accords, in which the United Arab Emirates and other Arab states recognized Israel.
Following a visit by President Isaac Herzog to the White House during which he called Biden a “great friend of Israel,” the administration on Wednesday announced an agreement to finally allow visa-free travel to the US upon request.
In return, Israel will change its travel procedures to ensure equal treatment for all US citizens entering the country regardless of national origin, religion or ethnicity, including Palestinian Americans.
In recent months, Netanyahu has dropped one of the most controversial parts of the bill, which would have allowed parliament to vote to ignore Supreme Court rulings.
Months of negotiations between the government and the opposition failed to reach a compromise, and Netanyahu now appears ready to push the first part of the legislative package through parliament on Sunday.
Raf Sánchez reported from Tel Aviv, Josh Lederman reported from London, and Abigail Williams reported from Washington.
