Senior officials in the administration of Joe Biden confirmed Wednesday evening the remarks attributed to the U.S. leader in an article by esteemed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in which he urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt the legislation of his government's controversial push to overhaul Israel's judiciary.
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Meanwhile, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby also confirmed that the statement given by President Biden to Thomas Friedman is authentic.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden
(Photo: Amit Shabi, AP)
Officials in Washington did not welcome the official statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office after Netanyahu and Biden’s call on Monday, in which Netanyahu informed the U.S. president that he would try to garner broad public support for continuing the process during the summer recess. In essence, implying that a bill to curb judicial oversight of government actions will be definitively approved.
Netanyahu's message, stating that this legislation will undoubtedly pass, troubled Washington which wanted to emphasize that, from Biden's perspective, it must be halted now and subjected to broad agreement and genuine compromise. President Biden leveraged his meeting with Friedman, which was prearranged, to reiterate his stance.
This clarification from the White House came after officials in Jerusalem claimed that Biden’s message to immediately halt the legislation was not conveyed during the call.
National Security Adviser and Netanyahu confidant Tzachi Hanegbi issued a statement hours after Friedman's article was published stating that "the things attributed to the president in The New York Times article were not mentioned in the call."
According to Hanegbi, "the phone call between the U.S. president and the prime minister was, as both sides described it, 'good, heartfelt and constructive.' Prime Minister Netanyahu updated the president that in the coming week, the Knesset will finalize the current legislation and that during the parliamentary summer recess, efforts will be made to achieve broad public consensus regarding the rest of the process."