Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs and former Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer spoke with Fox News on Sunday and discussed the government's judicial reform plan and the American intervention in the matter.
"I do believe that this is an internal matter in Israel, and I think it's something that other democratic leaders should not weigh in on. And the Prime Minister has abided by that policy as prime minister. And I would encourage all leaders around the world to respect the decision of other democratic countries. It's one thing when democratic leaders weigh in on countries that are non-democracies because the people don't have a say in how they govern themselves," Dermer stated, hinting at the pressure applied on Prime Minister Netanyahu by President Joe Biden and other leaders to halt the legislation process.
"But these questions of how you're going to govern yourself, what is the right balance that you want to find between the branches of government. The decision of whether the pendulum has swung too much to one side and should move back to the other. I think that should be left to the sovereign decisions of other democratic countries, and that should be respected," he added.
Dermer continued about the alleged meddling in domestic Israeli politics: "I don't want to interfere in your politics just like we don't want you to interfere in ours. The prime minister has said that he has a rule that he doesn't get involved in the internal workings of other democracies. When you're a leader of a country, you see all sorts of things that happen all around the world."
Dermer pointed out similar situations in other countries where the United States did not get involved. "You can see protests in France over this or that decision by the French president. You may see protests in the United States over this or that decision. You may see disagreements between your executive branch of government and your judicial branch of government over this or that policy issue and all sorts of questions that you have about what is the right balance that you're trying to find in the United States, which is a nearly 250-year-old country with institutions that are very, very well founded. You still have these tensions. But what we do is we try not to weigh in on those internal matters."
The minister also explained why, in his opinion, the reform is crucial, "We had a good balance of power between the different branches of government for almost the first half-century of the state. In the mid-90s, the courts started aggregating to itself more and more powers. And what you've seen in the last six or seven months after the last election is an attempt to restore this balance and to reduce judicial activism and by most criteria and standards. Legal experts will say that the activism in Israel's Supreme Court is unlike in any other democratic country in the world. So what we're trying to do is rein in that activism."