JERUSALEM -- A growing rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden roiled Israel on Wednesday after a rare public spat between the two leaders.
The dispute started late Tuesday after comments by Biden that appeared to show a lack of faith in Netanyahu's ability to compromise on his contentious judicial overhaul plan, which has sparked months of protests and instability in Israel.
Netanyahu's defiant response overnight Wednesday shook Israel's political and security establishment and opened the prime minister to a hail of criticism for jeopardizing Israel's most vital diplomatic relationship. Though tensions between the United States and Israel have been on the rise since Netanyahu's new far-right government was sworn in last December, this was the first time they were on such vivid public display.
Biden told reporters while he was in North Carolina just before boarding Air Force One en route to Washington on Tuesday that he remained "very concerned" about Israel, despite Netanyahu's move Monday to pause his overhaul of the judiciary, which critics say would irreparably weaken Israel's Supreme Court.
"They cannot continue down this road," Biden said.
The remarks were measured on their face, but explosive by the standards of the carefully disciplined messaging that normally defines U.S.-Israeli interactions.
The president expanded on his comments after landing in Washington.
"I hope he walks away from it," he said of the prime minister's legislative push.
Biden also dashed hopes in Jerusalem that Netanyahu, who just began his sixth term in office, would make the traditional trip to the White House anytime soon. "Not in the near term," he said.
"This is clear and tangible damage to the U.S.-Israel relationship, a pillar of Israel's national security," Israeli former diplomat Alon Pinkas wrote in the Haaretz newspaper Wednesday. "As long as he is Israel's prime minister, things are likely to deteriorate."
Biden's comments landed late at night in Israel, but Netanyahu responded in a 1 a.m. string of tweets that "Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends."
Hard-line members of Netanyahu's governing coalition were even more defiant, accusing Biden of meddling in Israel's domestic affairs. One minister from Netanyahu's Likud party posted that Biden had been duped by "fake news" before deleting the tweet.
National security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right politician with roots in the radical settlers' movement, complained that Israel is "not another star on the American flag. We are a democracy and I expect the U.S. president to understand that."
Another Likud member, deputy Knesset speaker Nissim Vaturi, said in an interview with local media that "Israel will protect itself without the U.S. if they will not support us," a remark deeply at odds with the countries' long-standing security partnership.
Former Army Chief of Staff and opposition leader Benny Gantz, who is rapidly rising in the polls as a rival to Netanyahu, thanked Biden for delivering "an urgent wake-up call to the Israeli government."
"Damaging relations with the United States, our best friend and our most important ally, is a strategic attack," Gantz tweeted.
Netanyahu's coalition, citing a mandate from its election victory in November, has proposed remaking the courts to give the government more power to override Supreme Court decisions and to pick judges and justices.