US President Joe Biden considered that the Israeli government, which is facing a large-scale protest movement against the draft judicial amendments, which was recently “frozen”, cannot “continue this path.”
Biden told reporters at the White House that he hopes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will reverse the judicial amendments law, which has sparked a political crisis for his government and protests in Israel.
Biden added: “They cannot continue this path, and I think I understand my position,” explaining, on the other hand, that he does not intend “in the near term” to invite Netanyahu to visit the White House.
How did Netanyahu respond to Biden’s statements?
- Netanyahu responded to Biden’s remarks, saying that Israel is a sovereign state that does not make decisions based on pressure from outside.
- Netanyahu added, “Israel makes its decisions according to the will of its people and not based on pressure from outside, including its best friends.”
- The Israeli official stressed that his government is striving to carry out reforms “through broad consensus.”
Thus passed the storm of protests in Israel
– Amidst the enormous pressure represented by the unprecedented protests in Israel, Netanyahu found no way out but to resort to the man who caused the whole crisis and to submit to his most important conditions.
– After long hours of loud demonstrations and widespread strikes in Israel, on Monday, Netanyahu appeared in a televised speech in the evening announcing the postponement of a decision on the issue of legal amendments, which withdraw powers from the judiciary in favor of politicians, which undermines the nature of the democratic system in Israel from the point of view of detractors.
Ben Gvir and the National Guard
- It seemed that the position of the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, was decisive in Netanyahu’s decision to postpone the amendments, especially after the minister known for his extremism threatened to withdraw from the government, which would mean its downfall.
- Ben Gvir said that he agreed to postpone the amendments in exchange for a pledge from Netanyahu to achieve the endeavor he had long dreamed of reaching, which is the “National Guard”.
- The minister, who heads the “Religious Zionism” party, distributed a letter signed by Netanyahu stating the latter’s pledge to raise the formation of such a body within the Ministry of National Security during the next cabinet meeting.
- This development came after Ben Gvir threatened to withdraw from the government if Netanyahu decided to refrain from moving forward with the government’s amendment plan.
- However, Netanyahu did not mention this agreement in his televised speech, in which he announced the postponement of the legal amendments until the Knesset resumes its work after the Passover holiday, next month.
What did Netanyahu say in his speech?
- Decided to suspend draft laws related to reforms in the judicial system.
- I will postpone the second and third readings of the justice bill to the next Knesset session.
- The postponement comes out of a desire to reach a broad consensus.
- I am not ready to divide the people and always call for dialogue.
- I do not accept calls for disobedience, and I ask the leadership of the army and security services to stand up to the disobedience movement.
- We are not enemies, we are brothers, and I am not ready to cut our people into pieces.