Former Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman told the Jewish news outlet Forward that President Joe Biden's decision to not invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House for supporting the controversial Israeli judicial reform plan "sends the wrong message to our friends and enemies."
Foxman, who is a Biden supporter and opposes the reform plan, said Biden is holding Netanyahu and Israel to a higher standard than other nations in the region that have failed to meet when it comes to meeting basic democratic norms.
He pointed out recent meetings Biden has had with leaders in Jordan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, where those "norms" are ignored for the most part, while criticizing America's closest Middle East ally and friend.
The judicial reform controversy in Israel boiled over into protests in March as the country debated changing how judges for its High Court are selected and other broad reforms brought on by Netanyahu's ruling conservative coalition, leading opponents into the streets to protest the measures, the Jewish News Syndicate reported in March.
Axios reported Biden said at the time that he would break with tradition and not invite Netanyahu to the White House "in the near term" as long as he pursued the policy.
"Like many strong supporters of Israel, I'm very concerned. I'm concerned that they get this straight. They cannot continue down this road. I've sort of made that clear," Biden said in March. "Hopefully the prime minister will act in a way that he will try to work out some genuine compromise, but that remains to be seen."
Despite his own reservations and opposition to the reforms, Foxman said the matter should be left up to the Israelis to decide on their own without outside pressure from the United States.
"That to me is very dangerous because Israel needs its independence," Foxman told Forward. "It has its sovereignty and it should make its own decisions."
However, National Council of Jewish Women head Shelia Katz told the news outlet that the United States and Biden should be more vocal in pushing Israel to abandon the reforms.
"When the vital protections of democracy are being dismantled, it is no longer business as usual," Katz said in the report. "We believe President Biden should do everything in his power to ensure the democratic future of Israel and encourage an end to the judicial overhaul process."
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