Smotrich cutting short America trip to take part in judicial overhaul negotiations

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will be heading home early from his trip abroad in order to join a negotiation process aimed at reaching a compromise regarding the government’s judicial overhaul efforts, his office says.

Smotrich was supposed to travel from New York to Panama today in order to participate in a conference of foreign ministers from South America.

Smotrich has been in the US for the past three days, speaking at the Israel Bonds conference, visiting the Israeli Embassy in Washington, touring the US Holocaust Museum, stopping by a Chabad house in New York and meeting with the CEO of Citibank Israel, the Orthodox Union’s leadership and the right-wing Zionist Organization of America board.

US government officials, representatives from the International Monetary Fund and the US Chamber of Commerce, and dozens of Jewish organizations from across the political spectrum all refused to meet with the far-right finance minister after he called for wiping out a Palestinian town earlier this month. Smotrich has since apologized.