With Diplomatic Gains in the US, Netanyahu Briefly Soared above the Overhaul Fight

Winfield Myers

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s US trip began on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport, with a focus on the protests against judicial reform that have dogged his government since his justice minister unveiled the planned overhaul when he returned to power nine months ago.

Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane hours after the end of the Rosh Hashanah holiday, Netanyahu accused the protesters of “joining forces with the PLO and Iran,” which he framed as being against Israel rather than against his government.

His aides quickly realized that their boss had overstepped and worked to soften the statement.

Then Netanyahu took off for San Jose. In the United States for six days, the prime minister sought to leave the internal fight in Israel behind him and present himself as a world leader pursuing loftier goals.

Surprisingly, he largely succeeded.

Read the full article at the Times of Israel.

Lazar Berman is the Times of Israel‘s diplomatic reporter and a Ginsburg/Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum.
Lazar Berman is the diplomatic correspondent at the Times of Israel, where he also covers Christian Affairs. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and taught at Salahuddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan. Berman is a reserve captain in the IDF’s Commando Brigade and served in a Bedouin unit during his active service.
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I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.