Report: Netanyahu told Biden opposition parties aren’t serious about negotiations
US president pushed PM in Monday call to reach compromise on judicial overhaul; he responded that opposition fears backlash from protest movement if it were to reach an agreement
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden that opposition parties are not serious about negotiating an agreement on the coalition’s planned judicial overhaul, according to a report Tuesday.
The Walla news site said Netanyahu asserted during his Monday phone call with Biden that the opposition fears a backlash from the national protest movement, which rejects the entire legislative package, if it compromises on certain issues.
According to an Israeli readout, during their conversation, Netanyahu updated Biden on the legislation. Netanyahu told Biden he aims to move ahead next week with a bill, fiercely opposed by the opposition, that will remove judicial oversight over the reasonableness of governmental decisions, and to use the summer parliamentary recess to build more support for “the remaining parts of the process.”
Critics say the bill and the overhaul as a whole will dangerously erode Israel’s democratic character by sapping power from the High Court of Justice to act as a check and balance against the ruling majority. Netanyahu’s right, far-right and religious coalition says the overhaul is needed to rein in what it sees as an over-intrusive and activist court.
Citing US and Israeli sources familiar with what was said in the call, Walla reported that Biden pushed Netanyahu to negotiate a compromise with opposition parties.
The prime minister is said to have responded that there is no point in speaking to the opposition because its members aren’t prepared to hold serious negotiations as they fear the response of protest groups.
Netanyahu previously assured the White House he was prepared to reach an agreement. He agreed to pause the overhaul legislation in late March in order to engage in negotiations with the opposition, brokered by President Isaac Herzog, that sought to reach compromises on judicial reform. But those talks fell apart last month and the Netanyahu government decided to move ahead with the overhaul unilaterally.
The White House readout of the call emphasized, among other matters, the US president’s ongoing concern about the legislation. It noted that Biden repeated “the need for the broadest possible consensus” in Israel over judicial reform, and “that shared democratic values have always been and must remain a hallmark of the US-Israel relationship.”
Biden also “expressed concern about continued settlement growth and call[ed] on all parties to refrain from further unilateral measures.” The Netanyahu government has advanced more settlement construction in six months than any government has in a calendar year, while failing to clamp down on settler violence and wildcat Israeli construction that the US views as inhibiting prospects for a two-state solution.
The unnamed US and Israeli officials told Walla that Netanyahu said of the settlement activity, “It’s mainly planning. It’s just announcements. I don’t think there will be any more construction plans in the settlements that will be promoted by the end of the year.”
Some Hebrew media outlets took this report to mean Netanyahu had agreed to a settlement construction freeze, but Netanyahu’s office denied this, and it appeared that the prime minister had been referring to a technicality — that the Defense Ministry’s Higher Planning Council, which approves Israeli construction in West Bank, was not scheduled to meet again to grant approvals before year’s end.
During the call, Biden agreed to meet Netanyahu, according to Jerusalem, but the Israeli statement did not specify a time or a place and there was no mention of the matter in the White House statement. A White House spokesman did confirm that a meeting was set to take place later in the year, but gave no specifics.
In the seven months since Netanyahu was reelected, Biden has refrained from inviting him to the White House due to Washington’s ongoing displeasure with the hardline Israeli coalition’s judicial overhaul plans and Jerusalem’s policies in the West Bank.
Monday’s conversation was the third between the two leaders since Netanyahu returned to power on December 29. The last time they spoke was in March when Biden also raised alarm regarding the overhaul.
