Netanyahu Says Israel-US Alliance Is ‘Unbreakable’ Despite Tension Over Judicial Overhaul

President Biden made his first public remarks expressing concern over judicial reform legislation

After a series of confrontational statements between Israeli and American politicians over the American stance on Israel’s judicial overhaul, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel needed to “ensure that the judiciary remains independent and that we balance the need to strengthen the executive and the legislative, and at the same time protect individual rights.” This balance, the Israeli prime minister said, could be achieved through negotiations between the Israeli coalition and the opposition.

Speaking at the US State Department Summit for Democracy 2023, initiated by US President Joe Biden, Netanyahu said that he believed it was possible to achieve a broad national consensus.

President Biden on Tuesday had made his first public criticisms of the Israeli government’s plan to reform the country’s judicial system, to which Netanyahu responded that overseas pressure would not affect Israel’s decision-making.

Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned

President Biden told reporters, “Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned. And I’m concerned that they get this straight. … 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.” He added that there were no plans to invite Netanyahu to Washington in the near term.

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 responded by saying that he appreciated President Biden’s longstanding commitment to Israel and that the alliance between both countries was “unbreakable and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us,” adding that his administration was committed to “restoring the proper balance between the three branches of government, which we are striving to achieve via a broad consensus.”

But, alluding to Biden’s criticism, the Israeli prime minister said, “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.”

Israel is an independent country and not another star on the US flag

Other members of Israel’s governing coalition also responded on Wednesday. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads the Jewish Power faction that ran on the Religious Zionism slate in the last election, said on national radio, “We appreciate the democratic regime there, but it is precisely for this reason that they need to understand that Israel is an independent country and not another star on the US flag.” Member of Knesset Nissim Vaturi, from Netanyahu’s Likud party, opined that Israel was “probably more democratic” than the US while blaming former President Barak Obama for the deaths of Israeli soldiers during the 2014 Gaza War.

Dr. Toby Greene, a lecturer in the Political Studies Department at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line that there was clearly tension between Israel and the US. “The clarity of President Biden’s statement of the concern there in respect to the Israeli government’s legislative agenda, and the sharp tone of response from Israeli ministers, are clear illustrations of high tension in the relationship,” he said.

Furthermore, he added, this discord had practical ramifications, as well. Greene noted that Netanyahu had not yet been invited to Washington and that President Biden made clear he had no immediate plans to invite him to the White House.

“There are vital national security issues, particularly with respect to Iran and the Iranian nuclear program, that urgently need to be coordinated at the highest political levels between Israel and the United States,” explained Greene. “The fact that it is not happening is of practical significance,” he added.

Greene puts the US perspective in the context of political developments in Israel over the last week. “It’s hard to know from the US perspective what that kind of vital strategic conversation will look like in a situation where the prime minister of Israel fired the defense minister for saying out loud that the prime minister’s policies were causing a national security threat to the State of Israel,” he said.

One of the great bonds between Israel and the US is our shared value of democracy

Ethan Kushner, chair of Democrats Abroad in Israel, told The Media Line he personally believed the US was “extremely concerned regarding the preservation of democracy in Israel and is urging the Israeli government to act and behave according to democratic norms.”

Kushner said Biden’s statement was not necessarily an involvement in Israeli internal affairs but a concern that a strategic partner had the right to say. “I think that the United States operates and works under a particular ideal when it comes to democracy and one of the great bonds between Israel and the US is our shared value of democracy,” he said.

But, he noted, he did not think Biden’s statement meant there would be no invitation for the Israeli prime minister to visit Washington. “I think that what was said is that not in the near future with not necessarily a definition of when the near future will take place,” he said.

The White House and the US administration will understand that these are individuals mouthing off

Responding to Ben-Gvir’s and Vaturi’s statements, Greene stressed that the US-Israel relationship was deeply institutionalized and deeply embedded in the political culture of the United States. Thus, he believes that “the White House and the US administration will understand that these are individuals mouthing off.” He added that the relevant question was to what extent were their attitudes representative of the future direction of the State of Israel.

Greene said that in the past, US pressure was an asset that Netanyahu could use if he wanted to make a case with more radical coalition partners for moderation. But now, “because of the way Netanyahu’s personal political interests are so tightly bound up with this coalition and with its legislative agenda, and because of the extent of the extremism of some of his coalition partners, it’s not clear that the pressure from the US will have the same kind of restraining influence that it might have had in the past,” he continued.

For Democrats and some Republicans who have spoken out in the last couple of days, Greene said, “the liberal democratic quality of the State of Israel matters to them, and it also matters greatly to US Jews who play an important role in the US relationship.” He added that the erosion of liberal democracy in Israel did pose a threat to the long-term quality of the US-Israel relationship and bipartisan US support for the Jewish state.

Kushner pointed out that the United States, since the pause in the legislative process, “is extremely encouraged by the fact that there is now, at least in the near future, an attempt to come to some sort of a compromise that will be accepted by both opposition and coalition in Israel and it will allow those democratic foundations to be kept.”