The threats are just a reminder that Israel’s judicial reform is vitally necessary.
Israel’s democratically elected government is trying to introduce democratic checks and balances. Biden’s State Department is funding the organization behind the riots and every official who comes to Israel recites the same warnings and threats.
And while reading from the same script.
Having the Secretary of Defense interfere in Israel’s domestic politics is a new low in an administration of lows.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed the importance of an “independent judiciary” on a visit to Israel on Thursday, as thousands took to the streets across the country to protest against government proposals to overhaul the legal system.
Austin, whose schedule was rearranged to keep his engagements close to Israel’s main international airport, told a news conference that both countries “shared values of democracy and freedom and the rule of law.”
“As President Biden has said, the genius of democracy, of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, and on an independent judiciary,” he said after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant.
The Biden administration has given serious consideration to packing the Supreme Court. Israel is trying to reintroduce democratic checks and balances to a judiciary that claims absolute power and the right to select its own members. The torrent of threats is just a reminder that Israel’s judicial reform is vitally necessary.
