Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Newsmax on Monday that despite criticism from the Biden administration over his country's judicial reforms, his ruling Likud party is simply implementing the mandate it was given when voters returned it to power in November.
On July 24, Israel's Knesset passed legislation that limits the country's Supreme Court from reviewing the "reasonableness" of government decisions. The legislation, which Netanyahu campaigned on passing, sparked nationwide protests, with opponents fearing it could lead to autocratic rule. The Biden administration called it "unfortunate" and urged Netanyahu to "build a broader consensus through political dialogue."
Netanyahu told "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that he wanted to build a consensus, "but it's very hard to do."
"Imagine if President Biden or before him, President Trump, had a major item on his agenda, and he said, 'Well, I'm waiting for the other side to buy in,'" Netanyahu said. "So, we've waited seven months for some buy-in from the other side of the aisle, and none came.
"We did something which is quite minor, actually. I don't want to say minor, but it's not a central pillar of the reform. And it's still met with howls of protest. We're bringing down democracy. Look, the way that reasonableness is done in Israel has no parallel in any democracy, not in America or in any other parliamentary democracy on Earth. If this was a breach of democracy, I suppose you have no democracies left on the planet."
Unlike the United States, Israel does not have a formal constitution that establishes the role and limits of each branch of government. The reasonableness clause allows the Israeli judiciary to cancel legislation not based on legal precedent, but on how reasonable it is in the eyes of the court.
"Just merely saying something is unreasonable gives a tremendous latitude to the judges without need to base it on existing statutes," Netanyahu said. "We wanted to not actually eliminate it, but to reduce that statute as is common in other democracies.
"And that's what we did, and that's raising howls of protests from our opponents, many of whom in the opposition had previously supported this correction just seven months ago, before the elections."
Netanyahu said the issue is being misrepresented by the opposition, but when the dust settles, people will believe it will be for the good of the country.
"This is something that will strengthen Israeli democracy by bringing the checks and balances between the three branches of government, more in line with what Israel was up till about 20 years ago and what all democracies are today," he said. "Things will work out eventually."
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