On Monday, State Department spokesman Ned Price as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized Israel’s plan to build new settlements as undermining Israeli democracy. This follows President Biden’s interview with New York Times, where, he too, decided to meddle in the internal affairs of Israel’s democratic system.

On Israel government’s proposed judicial reform plan, Biden said:

“The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary. Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”

This statement echoes earlier remarks by Secretary Blinken who stated, “…as democracies, one of the things that we recognize is that building consensus on new proposals is the best way to make sure that not only are they embraced but that they actually endure.”

Moreover, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) also said  that he was “very concerned” that the judicial reform would make Israel “less democratic.”

This Democrat pressure has achieved its desired result on stunting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s push for judicial reform. Even though Bibi has a government and a majority coalition, his government has agreed to negotiate with the opposition on a compromise to the judicial reform without preconditions.

And the leader of the opposition Yair Lapid swiftly rejected the overture, with his partners following suit. Lapid is one of many participating in a hyperbolic, toxic chorus against Bibi’s proposal, stating that the reforms would result in “erasing democracy.” Both the leaders of the opposition Labor and National Unity parties called the judicial reform a “coup d’etat,” with former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon similarly calling the reform “a regime coup.” Former Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit called the proposed reforms “regime change” and “the elimination of the independence of the legal system from end to end.”

These proposed judicial reforms, however, do not upend democracy.

Well-articulated commentary by Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire, Morton Klein of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), and Prof. Eugene Kontorovich of George Mason University argue that the reform actually does otherwise, and makes Israel’s Supreme Court more democratized and accountable to checks and balances. And according to some accounts, Israel’s public opinion has gone from 80 percent supportive of Israel’s Supreme Court 25 years ago to 75 percent distrustful of the Court only two years ago.

But the rhetoric of some within Israel’s ruling class has become so depraved that it even borders on incitement to violence. Former AG Mandelblit stated that if these reforms move forward, “somebody or some people will pay the price in blood. That’s what will happen.” Evoking Nazi imagery, the leader of the Labor party called the reforms a “legislative blitz of the judicial system,” while former Prime Minister Ehud Barak photoshopped a picture of Israel president Isaac Hertzog to a picture of Neville Chamberlain and called any compromise “peace in our time,” thus comparing the current Israeli government to Nazi Germany. Barak has since deleted that post, but one cannot help draw parallels to caricatures drawn of the late Yitzhak Rabin as Hitler prior to Rabin’s assassination.

And the head pilot of Israel’s 1981 airstrike on Iraq’s nuclear reactor chillingly posted on Facebook, as reported in The Times of Israel:

‘If a prime minister stands up and assumes dictatorial powers for himself, he deserves to die, it’s as simple as that,’ [Zeev Raz] wrote in a Friday Facebook post that did not mention Netanyahu by name. If a leader behaves ‘in a dictatorial way, there’s an obligation to kill them,’ Raz added. Justifying his claim, he appeared to argue that allowing the controversial judicial overhaul to move forward would result in ‘a lot of innocent dead, and it’s better to kill the criminals first.’

If the Biden administration and the opposition in Israel really cared about the future of democracy in Israel, they would allow a vote to move forward in the Knesset on judicial reform. Rather, it is stonewalling that vote that threatens democracy and peace in Israel.

You can follow Steve Postal on Twitter @HebraicMosaic