President Joe Biden on Saturday issued his first comment on the controversial judicial overhaul debate currently raging in Israel, telling The New York Times a “consensus” was needed before enacting any reforms.
“The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary,” he told the newspaper in a statement. “Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”
Veteran columnist Tom Friedman wrote the statement marked “the first time I can recall a U.S. president has ever weighed in on an internal Israeli debate about the very character of the country’s democracy.”
If Netanyahu “just keeps plowing ahead” with the reform, he will effectively be snubbing the U.S. president,…
