Knesset Members from the Likud party slammed the US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides early Sunday morning against the background of his unusual statement against the promotion of reform in the judicial system and his advice to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "pump the brakes and slow down". The members called on Nides and the US not to intervene in Israel's internal affairs.
Diaspora Minister Amichai Shikli said in an interview with Israeli Radio Station 'Reshet Bet' "I say to the American ambassador: Mind your own business. We will be happy to discuss foreign and security matters with you - but respect our democracy."
Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs responds to U.S. ambassador Tom Nides, who urged Netanyahu to “pump the brakes” on judicial overhaul: “Mind your own business.” https://t.co/ztLVpDXSfv
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) February 19, 2023
MK Dan Iloz also said that "comrades do not interfere in internal issues, Israel and only Israel will determine its future. Ambassador Nides' words are unacceptable. We will continue to work to strengthen democracy in Israel. If anything, the world should applaud us for that." MK Boaz Bismut added and argued that Israel should not be moved by Nides’s words and suggestions. "I don't see it as a warning and certainly not as a dire threat to Israeli progress," he also said on a radio interview early Sunday. "The US is a great friend of ours, not only is it our partner, we share the same values with them, it always was and always will be the case, and that's how things will be."
According to Bismut, "the US feeds on information that is passed on to it. Irresponsible people forget that the foreign policy of the State of Israel belongs to all of us, and the Israeli economy belongs to all of us - so I would expect a little more responsibility from them. I respect the American ambassador very much, but he is actually the first one who should know that politicians in the US choose supreme justices, just like what we are trying to do here."
Tom Nides admits he is the ambassador to ‘Palestine’, not Israel. #BigTentAntisemitism https://t.co/S4MZHtQcmx
— Orbital tungsten rod sales🏹 (@razingarizona) February 19, 2023
Tom Nides' statements and the Israeli coalition members' response come after American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Saturday night, and told him that "we in the American administration support the two-state solution, and oppose unilateral measures that could endanger the implementation of the solution.” Blinken directed his words to the government's recent decisions to expand the construction in Judea and Samaria and the training of several settlements that were illegal until now, but not seen as highly controversial locations.
