I think have mentioned before my high regard for NYT columnist T L Freidman and earlier this week he gave us more reason to be grateful for his work. On Tuesday he was invited to the White House for an interview of some candor with the President which he passed along to us via his column of Jul 19. Because of the importance of this (largely ignored by the media lately)subject, I urge you to read it. Meanwhile, here is my summation with a few comments.

First of all President Biden was anxious to get through to PM Benyamin Netanyahu that the current crisis in Israel and its echoes in other countries, particularly ours, is serious business I mean, of course, BN’s suggested “reforms” to the judicial system which would strip the Supreme Court of much of its power over public life. Since Israel has no written constitution, it is not clear how far this would go, or what limits could be assumed, but he obviously wants it to go a very long way.

This would mean the power of the legislative part of government, the Knesset, could be virtually unlimited. This body is often divided and Israel has so many parties that it is difficult to control, but if one party(or coalition)led by one powerful charismatic man got control of it, there would be no serious way to limit it. Netanyahu may be on the verge of this.

To be sure, many Israelis are resisting this fiercely. Tens of thousands of them have taken to the street, something common in some parts of the Middle East, but nearly unheard of in Israel. These people have made no secret of their opposition to this stripping of judicial power and moving towards something like totalitarian rule. They are likely in the majority now, but whether they will remain so is an unknown. The situation is actually, in a rough way comparable to ours. Trump has strong support from a minority of our citizens. But it’s a large and noisy minority, and if he and they got real power what they might do is unknown(they would be a bit more constrained by the Constitution and precedent that those in Israel).

Biden has taken all this into account and as a loyal friend of Israel, he fears what they might do to themselves. They might cease to be a force for stability and democracy in the Middle East and become another troublesome nation. In a world beset by the Ukrainian War, global climate crisis and increasing adventurism among reckless leaders this would not be a welcome event.

Freidman says the President is perfectly aware that this is way more than an Israeli political quarrel, but the possible beginning of a world crisis or at least an additional irritant to a fractious and divided international community. But the President also knows he is walking a tightrope. He must not show disrespect for Israel and/or appear to be trying to dictate its actions in domestic matters. At the same time he needs to be able to influence these things, but not give away the game about what he is doing. This is a difficult feat and would be for any President the US has ever had. Many have played it to some degree, notably FDR, LBJ and W, none of them with total success(FDR did it the best, however).

Despite the opposition it is possible that in a moment of political passion BN and his coalition might get these “reforms” through. But they would be unaccepted by many, likely most citizens and in the long run might threaten the stability of democracy within Israel. Freidman is adamant that Biden is pointing out(and should)that the strength of the US-Israel relationship depends to some degree on that nation’s adherence to democratic values. An abandoning of them would make an already annoyed congress less and less inclined to support Israel which would include military and financial aid.

Throughout Israel’s 70+ year history the US has always been its most dependable ally and they have responded by supporting us in nearly everything we needed them to do in the Middle East. There have been a few times when our wishes did not mesh before but not very many. Meanwhile, Israel has been the most stable of Mideastern Democracies and has held up the banner of Western ideas on freedom of expression and individual rights. I personally feel that these rights, which are mostly European and North American in their origin, are indeed the most desirable rights for populations to have. Not all will be ready for all of them at the same time, but the ideal is there to strive for, and I don’t think it is racist or colonialist to believe that.

I am perfectly aware that Israel has not always lived up to these ideas, particularly with respect to the Palestinian issue(see my earlier blog on this). These shortcomings need to be fixed but they are not likely to be fixed by Netanyahu or his followers. At the same time, whatever its faults here, Israel has come as close–closer–than any other Middle Eastern country to supporting and promoting Western ideas and ideals of democracy and individual freedom. It would be a dishoner and a shame to the Israelis and to those rights to see them disappear into a mixture of Israeli oppression, Palestinian extremism and radical exploitation of that mixture.

This must not be allowed to happen and that is why I strongly commend Mr Freidman’s article to you and suggest that you look at the NYT web page frequently for articles by him(NYT has a lot of good columnists, conservative and liberal–I’ll go with David Brooks as close to being Freidman’s equal.)