Blinken hints broad consensus needed for judicial reform plan
Israel and US are ‘two strong democracies,’ Netanyahu asserts • Secretary of state: ‘Environment of security’ must be restored here
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted that a broad consensus was needed for Israel’s planned judicial overhaul when he met on Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Building consensus for new proposals is the most effective way to ensure they are embraced and that they endure,” he said.
Blinken spoke amid proposals from outside the government that President Isaac Herzog lead a nonpartisan process for judicial overhaul so that it is not tied to the political and diplomatic agenda of Netanyahu’s new government.
Critics of the judicial overhaul plan have warned that it could harm Israeli democracy. The US has been concerned but has been loath to publicly come out against an internal reform process in Israel.
Blinken’s statement on the judicial overhaul was the most public to date, and in issuing it, he appeared to lend his support for Herzog to take over the reform process.
In a meeting with Herzog Monday evening, Blinken said he appreciated “the clarity of your voice when it comes to finding a good way forward that builds consensus on the question of judicial reform” and in “working to de-escalate tension within Israel.”
Herzog said he was “devoted to trying to resolve or lead to a path of internal dialogue. As you said correctly, this is an issue that requires wide consensus, and it is an issue many democracies debate,” but ultimately, Israel had to resolve the issue “internally, as societies and nations should do.”
Netanyahu has pushed back in recent days at criticism of his government’s judicial overhaul plan, saying it would strengthen democracy, not weaken it. He promised Blinken that Israel would remain a democracy.
Israel and the United States, Netanyahu said, “share common values” and are “two strong democracies which will remain, I assure you, two strong democracies.”
Blinken said the relationship between the two countries was rooted in their shared democratic values.
“One of the things that makes the partnership between us so strong is that it goes well beyond any one American or Israeli government,” he said.
The 75-year relationship between the two countries “is rooted both in shared interests and in shared values,” he
Former economic officials protest judicial reform, Page 2