Biden, Netanyahu go back and forth over Israeli judicial reform plan

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent Tuesday, March 28 and Wednesday, March 29 sparring over the latter’s judicial reform plan. The plan would give Prime Minister Netanyahu the final say in appointing the nation’s judges. It would also give parliament the authority to overturn Supreme Court decisions and limit the court’s ability to review laws.

Asked by reporters late Tuesday what he hopes Netanyahu does with the judicial reform plan, Biden replied, “I hope he walks away from it.”

“Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned and I’m concerned that they get this straight. They cannot continue down this road. And I’ve sort of made that clear,” Biden said. “Hopefully the Prime Minister will act in a way that he can try to work out some genuine compromise. But that remains to be seen.”

Netanyahu fired back at Biden’s criticisms on Twitter Wednesday.

“Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” Netanyahu tweeted. He qualified the tweet later, adding “the alliance between Israel and the United States is unbreakable and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us.”

Netanyahu called for a halt to the plan earlier this week, after two consecutive days of mass protests that drew tens of thousands of people to Israel’s streets. Critics have said the legislation would concentrate power in the hands of the coalition in parliament and upset the balance of checks and balances between branches of government.

“We won’t stop until what we said in the initial discussion – until they stop, not pause, but actually stop the legislation, and have conversations under good faith,” protester Daphna Laifenfeld said.

“We still need to show and shout that we want a democratic country here, even if things stopped, weakened and calmed down, that’s good, but it’s not the end yet,” fellow protester Noa Levinger added.