Netanyahu on Biden concerns about Israel’s judicial reforms: ‘Friends can have disagreements’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday addressed President Biden’s concerns about the Israeli leader’s planned judicial reforms, underscoring that Biden is a “great friend” of Israel and saying that “friends can have disagreements.”

“President Biden has weighed in concerned about the judicial reform. Do you believe this is impacting U.S.-Israeli relations?” host Chuck Todd asked Netanyahu on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“No I don’t. I think President Biden has been a great friend of Israel. I’ve known him for 40 years. For the time he was a senator through the vice president through president. I know his commitment to Israel’s security. Friends can have disagreements on occasion, but I share with them the view that we should act, and not only share the view I’m acting on it to try to reach a broad consensus as possible,” Netanyahu said.

Biden and members of Congress have expressed concerns about Netanyahu’s intent to shake up Israel’s judiciary with reforms that would give the executive body more power to appoint justices and would let the government overrule Supreme Court decisions. 

Israel saw intense protests after Netanyahu fired a defense minister who called for a pause to the plans. Netanyahu reversed the firing, and members of his coalition said they’d delay putting the reforms into effect.

Netanyahu said Sunday that he’s “decided to take a timeout” and “try to get a balance between the opposing views” on the issue.

He also said the “degree of coordination” between Israel and the U.S. on security, intelligence and economic matters has “no comparison to where this was 27 years ago.”

“I always say America is Israel’s indispensable and by far the best ally.  But I want to tell you, I don’t think you have a better ally in the world than Israel because Israel has become a great technological power and a great asset to the United States. And our cooperation, mutual cooperation, saves a lot of American and Israeli lives,” Netanyahu said.