Pro-Israel Democrat laments damage PM’s ‘far-right’ gov’t doing to 2-state solution alongside judicial overhaul

Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning, who is known as one of the most pro-Israel lawmakers in her party offers rare criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

“There are also concerns about what this far-right government is doing and the hurdles they are creating to a two-state solution,” Manning says during a webinar hosted by the Jewish Federations of North America.

“Any discussion about what’s going on in Israel should not only include what’s happening with the judicial reforms but also what’s happening in the West Bank and [what] is being pushed by the far-right wing of the current Israeli government.”

Recent months have seen record-setting settlement approvals by the Netanyahu government along with the establishment of new illegal outposts and upticks in deadly settler violence, which has gone largely unchecked.

The comments from Manning — who previously served as JFNA board chair — appear particularly noteworthy, given that she to date has all but refrained from publicly criticizing successive Israeli governments.

Manning also describes the pride she felt last week watching President Isaac Herzog give an address to a joint session of Congress and expresses for his until now failed efforts to negotiate a compromise on judicial reform.

Manning says she had been in touch with Israeli lawmakers ahead of yesterday’s passing of the overhaul bill removing judicial oversight over the reasonableness of governmental and ministerial decisions and that she “had been assured that there were enormous efforts to build a compromise and not push things forwards.”

“What we saw yesterday was that the idea of building consensus and moving slowly was cut short,” Manning laments.