To: Fellow members of the legislative branch; Members of congress

Re: Statement of President Biden Re: the State of Israel and the Netanyahu Government

I am writing to you following the statement made by President Biden regarding the State of Israel and to the Netanyahu government yesterday.

At this time, I feel that the statement given yesterday crossed a red line in the relationship between our two great countries.

Friends do not act like this towards each other. We do not intervene in each other’s actions. The spirit of democracy is to allow a nation to define its own future. The accusations made by President Biden were a blatant intervention in Israel’s democratic process by criticizing internal issues that should be defined in an internal manner.

I write to you this urgent message to you both Democrats and Republicans. Israel has always been a bipartisan state and the cooperation between our countries is of significant importance. This cooperation must continue with respect to the democratic processes taking place in both.

As a fellow member of the legislative branch, we know very well that part of our duty is to oversee the actions taken by the executive branch. Please use all the tools at your disposal to ensure these types of problematic statements do not happen again.

I hope to continue this friendship as it has flourished through dialog and not condemnation. We do not need to always agree, but intervention in the internal issues of friends is a red line not to be crossed.

I write to you in the utmost respect and I am more than glad to offer you a thorough briefing on the events taking place in Israel if interested. Please feel free to contact me if interested. You will be happy to find that the proposed judicial reforms will not hurt Israel’s democracy but rather will make Israel closer to the standards accepted in all democratic countries.

I look forward to continuing to work together.

Best regards,

MK Dan Illouz

View the letter as a PDF here.