WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog have discussed tensions on controversial judicial reforms in Israel that Biden has branded the work of an “extremist” government.
Biden hosted Israel’s President in the Oval Office at the White House on Tuesday. But the meeting did not mask a split over Benjamin Netanyahu’s troublesome push to reform the judicial system and expand unlawful Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.
Unlawful Jewish Settlements, Controversial Judicial Reforms Dominate Biden-Herzog Talks
Ties between the Biden administration and Netanyahu have been rocky ever since he made his political comeback at the head of an alliance of extremist parties in December. Several legislators in Biden’s Democratic Party have said that they are thinking of boycotting Israel’s President address to Congress in protest.
In Monday’s telephone phone call, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Biden that the controversial judicial bill would be approved next week and that he wanted to “reach wide public support for the rest of the judicial reforms during the summer break,” his office said.
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According to the US readout of the call, President Biden “expressed concern regarding continued [unlawful] Jewish settlement growth” and “stressed the need to take steps to maintain the viability” of Palestine along with Israel.
About the judicial reforms, President Biden reiterated that “shared democratic values have always been and must remain a hallmark of the Israel-US ties,” the US readout added.
Earlier, President Biden told CNN in an interview that Benjamin Netanyahu presides over “one of the most extremist… cabinets that I have seen.”
