To make sure that Biden’s position is crystal clear to all Israelis, he invited me to the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon and gave me a statement — unprecedented on this issue — expressing his respect for how the “enduring” protests in Israel are demonstrating the “vibrancy of Israel’s democracy,” as well as his wish that Netanyahu’s coalition stop rushing to slam through a constitutional overhaul, without even the semblance of a national consensus, that would sharply diminish the ability of Israel’s Supreme Court to oversee the decisions and appointments of Israel’s government.

Netanyahu has attempted to confuse Israel’s friends in America by playing down the importance of the fundamental change that his government is pushing, by calling it a judicial reform and framing it as small.