US-Israel Tension Over Judicial Reforms Overshadows President Herzog’s Visit
The White House briefing on the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog was dominated by discussions about Israel's controversial judicial reforms
A White House briefing for the American Jewish community on Monday following the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog was overshadowed by the passage of an Israeli law that limits the power of Israel’s Supreme Court as part of the country’s controversial judicial reforms.
Herzog’s visit occurred amid long-standing and widespread protests in Israel over a looming vote on judicial reform. The Biden Administration has publicly disagreed with those reforms, causing a deepening political rift between President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At the press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the American president and Israeli prime minister have continued to be in contact.
“President Biden and the prime minister have a decadeslong relationship, as I have been saying, and they have always been very candid with each other and discussed shared interests, and also have shared their concerns as well, just like they did last week,” she said. “There is nothing new in that relationship. Both have been very honest with each other.”
Tensions between the two leaders have been increasing. Earlier this month, the US president described Netanyahu’s coalition as having some of the “most extreme” members he has ever seen in the Israeli government.
Although Herzog’s role as president is primarily symbolic, his visit with President Biden was seen as a positive step in relations between Israel and the US. Herzog was only the second Israeli president to address both houses of Congress. His father, Chaim Herzog, was the first president to do so in 1987.
On Monday, Biden Administration officials briefed the American Jewish community on Herzog’s visit. The briefing took place on Monday, just hours after the first judicial reform measure was passed in Israel.
It was a successful visit and just shows how much we cooperate with the Israelis
“It was a successful visit and just shows how much we cooperate with the Israelis,” Samantha Sutton, the National Security Council’s director for Israel and Palestinian affairs, told attendees.
Leading up to the visit, Netanyahu had still not been invited to visit the White House since retaking office in 2022. Israeli leaders usually enjoy an automatic invitation to Washington once instated. During a phone call between President Biden and Netanyahu before Herzog’s visit, the US president invited Netanyahu for a visit to the US but did not set an official date.
Some say that the official invitation will hinge on how the judicial reforms play out in Israel.
At Monday’s briefing, retired US Army Gen. Terry Wolff, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Middle East and North Africa, said that the judicial reforms have been on the American president’s mind. The topic “did come up in the Netanyahu call, and it also came up in the Oval [Office] visit between President Biden and President Herzog,” he said.
Wolff said that President Biden had stressed the importance of dialogue and compromise regarding the judicial reforms. “The president’s argument and his perspective has been that it is really important that the sides get together, that they talk, and that discussions should not be over,” he said. “And so that was really one of the themes he stressed all during last week’s meetings.”
President Biden has been a friend of Israel for decades. It is a personal relationship. … We are going to continue to engage our Israeli counterparts to try and strengthen that special bond and that certainly will be the plan going forward.
Jean-Pierre and Wolff insisted that the relationship between Israel’s prime minister and the US president remains strong despite any disagreement around the judicial reforms.
“President Biden has been a friend of Israel for decades. It is a personal relationship. … We are going to continue to engage our Israeli counterparts to try and strengthen that special bond and that certainly will be the plan going forward,” Jean-Pierre said.
Wolf characterized disagreements between the leaders as being part of “a healthy dialogue.”
“We don’t always agree on everything, but at the same time we do talk about just about everything,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris also met with Herzog during his visit. The two of them are said to have an excellent rapport and have been in contact since Harris was a US senator.
Ilan Goldenberg, Vice President Harris’s special adviser for the Middle East and North Africa, told attendees that Herzog and Harris had a “very productive meeting.”
Harris and Herzog discussed many of the same topics that came up in the meeting with President Biden. Harris reiterated the administration’s position about judicial reforms. The pair also discussed the two-state solution.
Goldenberg said that the two spoke about “the Palestinian issue and the importance of continuing to work towards a world where Israelis and Palestinians can live safely and securely and enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and security, through, ideally a two-state solution.”
