U.S. rebukes Israel over plan to restart occupied West Bank settlements

The Israeli government is facing international scrutiny and condemnation over Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans to weaken Israel's Supreme Court and potentially restart West Bank settlements. In a highly unusual departure from the usual diplomatic statements, President Biden criticized Prime Minister's proposal to take over the judiciary in a call on Sunday. And the White House also says the future of Israeli democracy is at risk. And reacting to the West Bank news today on Capitol Hill hearing, Secretary of State Plinkin said that both sides want the U.S. engage, but it would be futile if one of them is not going to do what's needed. It's important for everyone to try to double down on the steps necessary to try to get there because it's profoundly not in the interests of Israel, our close ally and partner, or for that matter, the Palestinian Authority, to see this cycle cycle up.

Sanchez joins us now from Jerusalem, and he was speaking particularly about the settlements wrap, as you know, not about the Supreme Court issue, but it was very unusual that not only have the protests been larger than we've ever seen in Israel for weeks and weeks, but they cross so many categories, and you've got the military involved, former Mossad leaders, and not stopping, even though there's been some moderation of Netanyahu's stance, it still would undermine these independence of the judiciary. Yeah, that's right, Andrew. We are in unusual times. We are in tense times. We are heading into the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a joyous time for Muslims around the world, including Palestinians here in Jerusalem's old city. But traditionally, this has often been a tense moment in Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. Andrew, as you know, we are already in the midst of some of the worst violence we've seen here in 20 years.

I was speaking to an Israeli security official, and they are very concerned about what may be to come in the month of Ramadan. And the view from the Biden administration, as you heard from Secretary of State Blinken there, is that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's new right-wing government, are not doing enough to ease tensions. In fact, they are inflaming them. This week, the Israeli parliament voted to repeal part of a 2005 law which banned Israeli settlement construction in parts of the northern West Bank. This was a commitment that Israel's government made to the Bush administration back in the early 2000s. That has now been repealed. And the State Department is accusing Israel of flat-out violating the assurances that it gave to the United States.

And speaking of unusual diplomatic moves, we saw yesterday the Israeli ambassador in Washington was called to the State Department for a meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, where she expressed her deep frustration over this move and to potentially expand settlements. Now, Benjamin Netanyahu today, kind of between a rock and a hard place between the right-wing members of his government and a very unhappy Biden administration, he says he supports the repeal of this law, but he is also trying to reassure the U.S. that Israel does not intend to actually go ahead with building settlements there. Andrea? Well, on the Supreme Court issue and the settlements, the ambassador, Ambassador Herzog, on the settlements, and especially the Supreme Court, has been very clear in what his thought is, and his brother, President Herzog, has been trying to mediate the Supreme Court decisions. So Netanyahu does not even have the support of that part, you know, of the political elites in Israel. That's a fascinating problem and very risky, as you point out, Raf.

Thank you very much.

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