MEE Staff
Middle East Eye / June 7, 2023
Top diplomat questions whether Kamala Harris has even read Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul after she criticized it.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen took a jab at US Vice President Kamala Harris in a rare public display of the bad blood lingering between the Biden administration and its closest Middle East ally, over a contentious judicial overhaul.
Cohen was responding to comments Harris made during a speech on Tuesday at an event marking Israel’s 75th anniversary of statehood hosted by the Israeli embassy in Washington where she stressed the importance of an independent judiciary.
Harris’ remarks were widely seen as aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to reshape Israel’s judicial system.
“If we were to ask Kamala Harris what bothers her about the reform, she wouldn’t be able to name a single clause,” Cohen, the Israeli foreign minister told Israel’s Kan news on Wednesday. “I don’t know if [Harris] read the law or not – my assessment is that she hasn’t.”
Israel is the US’s closest Middle East ally, but ties between the two have come under pressure since Netanyahu returned to power last year as head of a coalition with far-right and ultranationalist allies.
US officials warned Netanyahu earlier this year about giving Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich control of civilian authorities in the occupied West Bank, equating the move with annexation.
In February, the US made a rare decision to support a motion at the UN Security Council condemning Israel’s plan to expand settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
But the fissure over the judicial overhaul is unique because it involves differences over Israel’s domestic politics. Netanyahu’s proposed changes have prompted pushback from many US supporters of Israel, particularly within Biden’s Democratic Party.
In March, a group of nearly 100 Democratic lawmakers warned Biden that the actions of Israel’s far-right government were undermining the US-Israel relationship. Biden later waded directly into the issue saying he was “concerned” about the proposal.
Cohen’s remarks drew pushback from US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, who is set to depart his post later this year.
“I have respect for FM Cohen, but the VP said things the administration says [at] every opportunity regarding the shared values and policies. Harris is a strong supporter of Israel,” Nides said.
Cohen later walked back the comments, saying in a statement published in English and Hebrew that he had “deep respect” for Harris while adding that the judicial overhaul remained “an internal issue”.
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Israeli Cabinet minister chides US Vice President Harris for judicial overhaul criticism
AP / June 7, 2023
JERUSALEM – Israel’s foreign minister chided U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday for speaking out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned overhaul of the country’s judiciary.
The exchange underscored tensions between the Biden administration and Netanyahu’s new government — the most right-wing and religious in Israel’s history — over the planned judicial overhaul.
Speaking at an Israeli embassy event in Washington on Tuesday, Harris had said that shared values are “the bedrock of the U.S.-Israel relationship” and that democracies are “built on strong institutions, checks and balances, and, I’ll add, an independent judiciary.”
Eli Cohen, Israel’s foreign minister, told Kan public radio “I can tell you that if you ask her what bothers her about the reform, she won’t be able to tell you”. He said he believes Harris has not read the bills in question.
Biden has publicly expressed concern over the Netanyahu government’s plan to reshape the legal system, which sparked mass protests that continue weekly even after the proposal was put on hold. Amid the tensions, Biden has not granted Netanyahu a typically customary invitation to the White House since his election in 2022.
U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides responded to Cohen saying that Harris only restated the government’s long-held position, according to Kan.
Critics say the proposed bills would concentrate power in the hands of the Israeli government by giving politicians control over appointments to the Supreme Court, providing the parliament with the authority to overturn high court decisions, and passing laws impervious to judicial review.
Cohen later wrote on Twitter that he has “great respect for our ally the United States and for Vice President Harris, a great friend of Israel,” adding that the judicial overhaul was “an internal Israeli matter” and that the country would remain “democratic and liberal as it has always been.”
While the freeze in the proposed legislation has eased tensions somewhat, Netanyahu’s allies are pushing him to move ahead with the overhaul. The talks underway between representatives of the government and opposition parties — meant to forge a path out of the crisis — have thus far proved fruitless.
Proponents of the overhaul say it is necessary to rein in what they consider an interventionist court and restore power to elected lawmakers.
Opponents say it would upset Israel’s delicate system of checks and balances and erode the country’s democratic institutions.
