Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, blasted the Biden administration’s treatment of Israel.
His comments came after outgoing US Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, who told The Wall Street Journal that the Biden administration is trying to stop Israel from “going off the rails” with the overhaul of its judicial system.
In the interview, Nides said, “I think most Israelis want the United States to be in their business. With that sometimes comes a modicum of a price, which is articulating when we think things are going off the rails.”
DeSantis tweeted in response, “How disrespectful for the US Ambassador to Israel to falsely claim 'most Israelis want the United States to be in their business.'”
“Biden meets with dictators of countries such as Venezuela but snubs the democratically elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This is not how you should treat an ally," added the Florida Governor.
Nides’ comments were the latest in a series of criticisms of Israel’s judicial reform by top US officials. In March, President Joe Biden offered very harsh criticism of Israel, saying he is “very concerned” about the goings on in light of the judicial reform and adding, “They cannot continue down this road.”
Biden also added he will not be inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in the near term.
Netanyahu later responded to Biden and said, “The alliance between Israel and the United States is unbreakable and always overcomes the occasional disagreements between us.”
He also stressed that “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.”
Vice President Kamala Harris recently said, at a reception in honor of Israel's 75th Independence Day hosted by the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C, that an independent judiciary was one of the values that have been the bedrock of the US-Israel relationship.
A US source later indicated that Harris made the comments after she was informed that MK Simcha Rothman, chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee and one of the architects of the judicial reform, was in attendance at her speech.