JERUSALEM (AP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected President Joe Biden’s suggestion that the prime minister “walk away” from a controversial plan to overhaul the legal system, saying the country is making its own decisions.
The exchange was a rare public spat between the two close allies and signaled friction between Israel and the US over Netanyahu’s judicial change, which was delayed after massive protests.
Asked by reporters late Tuesday what the prime minister wanted with the legislation, Biden replied, “I hope he walks away from it.” The president added that Netanyahu’s government “cannot continue on this path” and called for a compromise on the plan that upsets Israel. The president also followed US Ambassador Thomas Nides’ suggestion that Netanyahu would be invited to the White House, saying, “No, not in the near future.”
Netanyahu replied that Israel is a king and “makes its decisions by the will of the people and not based on pressure from abroad, including from our best friends.”
Later on Wednesday, Netanyahu struck a more positive tone, saying that while “Israel and the United States have their differences at times,” the alliance between them “cannot be broken.”
“No one can change that,” he said at the State Department’s Democracy Forum.
The frosty exchange came a day after Netanyahu called for a controversial government shutdown “to avoid civil war” following two consecutive days of mass protests that drew tens of thousands of people to Israel’s streets.
“I hope the prime minister will act in such a way that we can try to find a real compromise. But it remains to be seen,” Biden told reporters as he left North Carolina to return to Washington.
Israeli protest organizers called for a demonstration in support of Biden outside the US embassy in Tel Aviv on Thursday, while Netanyahu’s allies doubled down on the criticism.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a close ally of Netanyahu and the minister in charge of the police, told Israel Army Radio that Israel “is not another star on the American flag.”
“I hope the president of the United States understands this,” he said.
Speaking to Kan public radio, Education Minister Yoav Kisch said that “friends may not try to impose others on internal issues.”
Netanyahu has had several public spats with President Barack Obama over Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians and the Iranian nuclear issue. In 2015, he went behind the White House to address Congress and oppose a nuclear deal between world powers and Iran that remains.
Nimrod Goren, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, noted that US-Israeli relations have seen crises before — for example, the now-defunct agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear capabilities. In contrast, he said, the White House now appears to be “questioning Netanyahu’s competence as prime minister, and whether he is trustworthy or responsible.”
Netanyahu and his religious and ultranationalist allies announced the judicial overhaul in January just days after forming the most right-wing government in Israel’s history.
The proposal plunged Israel into its worst domestic crisis in decades. Business leaders, top economists and former security chiefs have all come out against the plan, saying it is pushing the country towards a dictatorship.
It also drew criticism from supporters of Israel in the US, including American Jewish organizations, as well as Democratic members of Congress. A Pew poll published last May found a widening partisan divide over Israel and Palestine, with Democrats — especially young voters — increasingly expressing favorable views of Palestine.
The plan would give Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges, and his allies the final say in choosing state judges. It would also give parliament, which is controlled by allies, the power to overturn Supreme Court decisions and limit the court’s ability to review legislation.
Critics say the legislation will concentrate power in the hands of the coalition in parliament and upset the balance of checks and balances between the branches of government.
Netanyahu said he was “trying to reach a broad consensus” in talks with opposition leaders that began on Tuesday.
Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition in the Israeli parliament, wrote on Twitter that Israel was the closest ally of the US for decades, but “the most radical government in the history of the country destroyed it in three months.”