Netanyahu Revives Judicial Overhaul Stripped of Most Controversial Piece In interview, Israeli prime minister says he wants to find middle ground on court-system changes and Ukraine
JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would drop the most controversial part of his plan to remake the country’s court system, pushing ahead with legislation stripped of a provision that would have given the national legislature the power to overturn rulings by the Supreme Court.
“It’s out,” Netanyahu said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that also touched on relations with the U.S., his decision not to supply weapons to Ukraine and his concerns about deepening ties between Russia and Iran.
Netanyahu’s initial judicial-overhaul plan, which sparked large-scale unrest that paralyzed the country earlier this year, was opposed by many secular and liberal Israelis who said they feared the measures would give the government too much power and lead to a rollback in civil liberties.
“I’m attentive to the public pulse, and to what I think will pass muster,” said Netanyahu, who has previously said he wouldn’t support an “unlimited override clause.”
Netanyahu allowed lieutenants to advance the initial legislation, but he has taken control of the plan’s substance and messaging since he paused the effort in March after civil unrest. The prime minister also said he would revise another controversial piece of the legislation, which would have given the ruling coalition more power to appoint judges, though he said he wasn’t sure yet what the new version would look like.
The revisions are unlikely to persuade opposition politicians to support the plan, and risk alienating the religious far-right and ultraorthodox parties that play a critical role in Netanyahu’s coalition government and see the country’s courts as too activist and hostile to their agenda.
It is unclear whether they go far enough to forestall a repeat of mass protests that grew so severe that Netanyahu in March suspended the legislation and started compromise talks with the opposition. He said the sides failed to reach an agreement and that he would move forward with his own revised plan.
He said that with his new version of the law he was determined to find a middle ground so any changes would “stick for a generation.” The opposition says Netanyahu risks plunging the country back into turmoil if he doesn’t return to the negotiating table.
The prime minister said he has also sought a middle ground in Israel’s response to the war in Ukraine.
Netanyahu rejected calls from some Washington lawmakers and Ukrainian officials to join the West’s effort to arm Ukraine, saying, “We have concerns that I don’t think any of the Western allies of Ukraine have.” He said he needs to ensure Israel has “freedom of action” in Syria, where Israeli pilots often bomb Iranian targets in the vicinity of Russia forces, which prop up the Damascus government.
He said he is also concerned that Israeli weaponry could be captured on the Ukraine battlefield and turned over to Iran, which has developed a closer military relationship with Russia in recent months. Specifically, he said Israel couldn’t allow the U.S. to give Ukraine the Iron Dome air-defense system—developed jointly with the U.S.—which has protected Israelis from frequent attacks by Iran-backed militants.
“If that system were to fall into the hands of Iran, then millions of Israelis would be left defenseless and imperiled,” Netanyahu said. He added that Israel had joined United Nations resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion and had delivered an early-warning system for detecting missile attacks to Ukraine.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel called fears of weaponry ending up in Iranian hands “entirely fictional and speculative assumptions.”
Netanyahu said he has conveyed his concerns to Russia about its growing military ties to Iran, which has supplied Moscow with drones that have been used on the battlefield in Ukraine. In exchange, Moscow has helped Iran with its cyber capabilities and is considering requests to help Iran with jet fighters, combat helicopters and potentially its missile-production capabilities, the Journal has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
“It’s a very disturbing relationship,” he said. “We’ve made our concerns known to the Russians.” Netanyahu declined to comment on what Moscow communicated in return.
Netanyahu said Israel’s relations with the U.S. remained strong, though he has yet to receive an invitation to visit the White House from President Biden. “I think it may take some time, but I think, of course, I should expect to meet President Biden,” he said.
The two men have known each other for four decades, but Netanyahu’s government has pursued policies that have upset the Biden administration, including approval of new Israeli settlements and raids on Palestinian militants in the West Bank. His far-right senior ministers have been unable to meet with Biden administration officials.
“This issue of the invitation clouds people’s views,” Netanyahu said. “In fact, the security cooperation, the military cooperation and the intel cooperation, including cyber, is stronger than it’s ever been under our two governments.”
Netanyahu could meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping before President Biden. Netanyahu’s office said this week that he would soon visit China, though no date was given, a decision political analysts said could further strain relations with Biden. Netanyahu’s office said this would be his fourth China visit and that the U.S. was notified of the visit a month ago. Israeli President Isaac Herzog is set to visit the White House in July.
In the West Bank, where Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians has been deadlier than at any point since the early 2000s, Netanyahu blamed the Palestinian Authority for failing to provide security. He said he rejected suggestions from some in his government that the authority should be dissolved and said he supported efforts to strengthen the U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership.
“My policy has been to definitely keep the Palestinian Authority. I don’t want it to dissolve the way people are talking. It’s simply ridiculous,” he said.
He said freedom of Israeli security services to operate anywhere in the West Bank was a crucial element to restoring order in the territory. Netanyahu said any peace deal with the Palestinians wouldn’t happen soon, saying Palestinians still don’t accept Israel’s right to exist.
Palestinian Authority officials say that they recognize Israel’s right to exist within its internationally recognized borders, and that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its Egypt-backed blockade of Gaza are the reasons the conflict continues.
While some Palestinian officials say their control of the West Bank has eroded, they blame frequent Israeli military raids, a lack of funding and widespread despair over Israel’s occupation.
The West Bank has also seen a series of Israeli settler mobs attacking Palestinian towns in revenge for deadly attacks against Israelis. Scores of settlers have set fire to dozens of cars and homes, injured more than a dozen Palestinians and left one Palestinian dead from gunshot wounds, according to the Israeli human-rights group B’Tselem.
Netanyahu called the settler attacks “misguided, unacceptable and criminal.” The heads of Israel’s security services have called the mob violence “nationalist terrorism.” Asked whether he agreed with his security chiefs, Netanyahu said: “You can call it nationalistic terrorism. It’s fine, but it doesn’t solve the problem.”
He added: “I will not tolerate any of this vigilantism. The ones who have the monopoly on the use of violence are the military and our security forces, not any individual.”
Netanyahu said that he would continue seeking peace agreements with more Arab and Muslim-majority countries, and that over time that would bring Palestinians closer to accepting Israel’s presence.
“I think peace is possible with additional Arab states, effectively ending the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he said. “And I think that would lead to peace with the Palestinians too.”
While Netanyahu says he is focused on expanding the series of peace agreements between Israel and Muslim-majority countries in 2020 known as the Abraham Accords, his coalition has presented a challenge.
In March 2022, the foreign ambassadors of Israel, Egypt, Bahrain, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S. met in Israel’s Negev Desert to discuss regional cooperation following the Abraham Accords.
The sides decided to reconvene every year to continue the work, but that has been delayed because of the discomfort of Arab participants over the escalating tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
Netanyahu rejected the idea that his coalition, which includes parties seen internationally as holding extremist views on the Palestinians, represents a stumbling block to advancing the Abraham Accords.
“They joined me. I didn’t join them,” he said of his coalition partners. “And ultimately, policy is determined by me and my colleagues in the Likud.”
Write to Dov Lieber at dov.lieber@wsj.com and Michael Amon at michael.amon@wsj.com
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