The New York Times revealed Tuesday that in the 48 hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctantly postponed his efforts to reform Israel's judiciary, his government "was bombarded with warnings from the Joe Biden administration" that he was threatening Israel's reputation as the true democracy at the heart of the Middle East.

And in the statement released Sunday night, shortly after Netanyahu fired his defense minister because he broke with the government over judicial reform, the White House noted that President Biden told Netanyahu by phone a week ago that democratic values "have always been, and must remain, the hallmark of of the relationship between the United States and Israel" and that major changes to the system should "be pursued with the widest possible base of popular support".

According to the report, the statement was remarkable because in normal times, the official line of the White House - be it a Democrat or a Republican - is that Washington does not interfere in the domestic politics of its allies. In this case, Biden and his advisers dropped all pretensions, putting themselves at public odds with Netanyahu, even though he has positioned himself in conversations with administration officials as a man desperately looking for compromise.

Privately, the talks with the Netanyahu government were more candid, administration officials said, "suggesting that Israel's image as the only democracy in the Middle East was at stake."

The newspaper notes that "the US ambassador to Israel, Thomas R. Nidis, who has deep roots in the Democratic Party that goes back to the Clinton administration, spent the weekend relaying messages from Biden and his staff. Brett McGurk, the White House's chief Middle East official, was And who has worked with both Democratic and Republican presidents, is in frequent contact with Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Herzog" to pass on this message.

And the newspaper reveals that, “By Sunday night (3/26), White House officials had reached two conclusions: The first is that Netanyahu grossly miscalculated when he announced the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who had publicly called for a suspension of efforts to pass legislation that would It changes the way judges are appointed. The second conclusion, they said, “is that Netanyahu was looking for a way out of the crisis, and benefited from telling right-wing partners in his fragile coalition that he could not risk losing the support of Israel’s most important ally… His message, said one senior official, was That Israel may soon face a crisis with Iran, which is closer than ever to acquiring nuclear weapons, and that he cannot afford to alienate Washington.

So when Netanyahu declared Monday in Israel that "when there is a possibility to prevent a civil war through dialogue," he would "take time for dialogue," they read it as a message to far-right members of his coalition that he had no other choice, according to the report.

The newspaper quotes one senior official as saying that “Netanyahu has put himself in an impossible predicament, telling American officials and the Israeli public that he was looking for a compromise, and yet trying to assemble the members of the right-wing coalition he needs to stay in power — and who refused to back down, and at the heart of the dispute.” There was a fundamental debate about the nature of democracy, including changes that Netanyahu had never seemed enthusiastic about before — but he had to step back to keep his right-wing coalition together.

The newspaper indicates that Netanyahu insisted that stripping the Israeli Supreme Court of the power to veto laws passed by the Israeli Knesset was necessary to promote true democracy - although he had to suspend this effort a week ago. Changes to how judges were appointed, and to make it more difficult to remove a prime minister, seemed to many critics to place unfettered power in the hands of the government.

The proposed reform also came as Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges, and some fear he may use the changes to extricate himself from his legal troubles.

However, “the Biden team had a more immediate concern. There was an acute awareness that Netanyahu was expected to participate in a second Biden Democracy Summit this week,” said one of the officials. Mr. Netanyahu while hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested that he was dismantling the constraints on his government's power."

The newspaper quotes Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East negotiator who has worked with US presidents since the Ronald Reagan era, as saying that he is not sure how important a role Biden's arguments played because "pressure from within is much more important than pressure from without." But he noted that once Mr. Gallant announced the fact that IDF reservists were interrupting training missions with their units, the reaction to Netanyahu's legislative initiative became a matter of national security.

Ross said that Netanyahu could argue internally that "the Iranian nuclear threat has become more acute and Israel may soon have to deal with it and cannot afford the United States backing down over judicial reform."

The newspaper says, "President Biden has always been clear that he was separating issues of defending Israel from his differences with Netanyahu over preserving democratic institutions. And American forces participated in a major military exercise several weeks ago that was a clear message to Iran, even as protesters took to the streets in Israel".

But questions about the depth of Congressional zeal to defend Israel have always lurked in the background, especially with the progressive side of the Democratic Party raising doubts about the wisdom of US military aid, at a time when the Netanyahu government was declaring that Jewish settlements in the disputed areas would be permanent.