In a national televisión interview, Lapid, who is the head of the opposition, renewed his questions about the judicial reform being promoted by the far-right government, which has provoked massive protests for weeks. He announced that he will continue to participate in the demonstrations against the reform, although Netanyahu postponed its discussion in Parliament until summer due to the peoples´s pressure.
Lapid warned about the tense relations between the United States and Israel, historical allies, due to the actions of Netanyahu and his ultranationalist partners.
This week, US President Joe Biden expressed concern about the initiative and publicly confirmed that he will not invite Netanyahu to the White House any time soon. In response, the latter stated that Israel is “a sovereign country that makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressure from abroad, even from its best friends.”
The Minister of National Security, the ultra-nationalist Itamar Ben Gvir, spoke more harshly, affirming that Israel is not just another star on the United States flag.
Yair Netanyahu, son of the prime minister, added fuel to the fire by accusing the US State Department of financing the demonstrations against his father, which the US ambassador, Tom Nides, described as absurd.
The tension reached the point that the Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, was boycotted by the Democrat administration during his recent visit to the United States, and questioned both in the US and the rest of the world for publicly supporting the destruction of the Palestinian village of Hawara, recently burnt down by Jewish settlers.
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