Netanyahu, Biden clash over judicial overhaul plan

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel’s government will protect democracy and the judiciary by enforcing the separation of powers. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Netanyahu should walk back a controversial judicial overhaul plan. In response, Netanyahu said Israel makes its decisions based on the will of its people, “not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.” Later Wednesday, Netanyahu said the alliance between the United States and Israel is unshakable.

Didn’t Netanyahu pause the plan? Netanyahu delayed the plan on Monday to “avoid a civil war,” he said, after protests drew tens of thousands of people to Israel’s streets. Netanyahu is on trial for corruption. The planned judicial overhaul would allow the nation’s ruling party to decide who serves on the Israeli judiciary and allow it to overturn Supreme Court decisions. Netanyahu’s critics say the overhaul plan is an attempt to keep himself in office.

Dig deeper: Listen to Emma Freire, Myrna Brown, and Paul Butler’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about Israel’s judicial reform.