Joe Biden doubles down on his refusal to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House, a customary tradition

Biden reiterated his statement in March that he would NOT be inviting Netanyahu to the White House because of his government’s attempt to reform Israel’s powerful judiciary — reforms that largely parallel existing practices in the U.S.

Breitbart (h/t Marvin W)  Israel’s proposed reforms parallel many existing practices and procedures in the United States, and supporters of the effort say they are necessary to rein in an activist court that has become a threat to majority rule.

The reforms, unveiled by Israel’s justice minister, Yariv Levin, consist of four basic legislative components:

1. Restricting the power of judicial review by requiring a full panel of Israel’s 15-member Supreme Court to strike down legislation passed by the elected legislature, or Knesset;

2. Allowing the Knesset to override a decision by the Supreme Court to strike down legislation by letting it pass the same legislation again;

3. Removing the power to select judges from an independent commission and giving it to the government;

4. Allowing government agencies to appoint their own legal advisers instead of relying on the justice ministry to do so.

In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Sunday, Biden said that he would not invite Netanyahu until he could “work through … his existing problems in terms of his coalition,” referring to Israel’s governing parties. Biden said that some of Netanyahu’s coalition partners were the “most extreme members of Cabinet that I’ve seen” since meeting Prime Minister Golda Meir in the early 1970s, whom he noted was not an extremist.

However, Biden met quickly with both prime ministers from the last coalition government, which included an Arab party regarded as extremist by many Israeli Jews because it denies the right of the State of Israel to exist.

Biden described himself on CNN as an “unyielding supporter of Israel” and added that some of the problems in the region were the fault of the Palestinian Authority leaders, whom he said created a “vacuum for extremism.”

“Unyielding supporter of Israel,” says Biden? Not so much, Israel has had issues with Biden in the past.

However, he said that he opposed members of Netanyahu’s cabinet who, he said, believed that Jews can “settle anywhere where we want” in the historic territories of Judea and Samaria, captured from Jordan in a defensive war in 1967. Some portions of those territories are administered by the Palestinian Authority, and the area is still disputed between the two sides.

Biden also said a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel — which was said to be close at hand in the final months of the Trump administration — is “a little way off.” Biden has adopted a tough approach to the Saudis, which in turn has caused them to turn to China in recent months.