US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen on Thursday stressed the "importance" of relations between the two countries, after a rare public dispute between the two allies, according to the State Department, this comes amid a mass demonstration in Tel Aviv yesterday for far-right supporters in support of judicial amendments and directed insults to US President Joe Biden.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said in a statement that Cohen and Blinken stressed during a phone call "the importance of the existing bilateral relationship between the United States and Israel."
Blinken also reiterated his country's support for a Palestinian state, which most members of Netanyahu's most right-wing government in Israel's history reject.
Patel said Blinken "underlined the importance of refraining from making unilateral decisions that inflame tensions."
Israel's Foreign Ministry said the two ministers discussed the ongoing dialogue in Israel with the aim of reaching an agreement on legal reform.
Relations with the United States are one of the pillars of Israeli foreign policy, the ministry said.
Last Tuesday, US President Joe Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon the judicial reform project, which is facing a broad protest movement, saying that the Israeli government "cannot continue this path," and Netanyahu responded immediately to that, stressing that "Israel is a sovereign state, whose decisions are issued by the will of its people and are not based on pressure from abroad, even when they come from its best friends."
Biden's remarks provoked the indignation of right-wing supporters, who came out in a mass demonstration on Thursday evening in central Tel Aviv, in which the number of participants was estimated at about 30,<>, and the demonstrators chanted profanity against Biden, and also chanted that "the people want legal reform," and supporters of the ruling coalition chanted slogans denouncing what they described as "traitorous leftists."
Al Jazeera's Elias Karam said those taking part in the demonstration included members of the extremist La Familia gang, which the opposition is demanding be classified as an outlaw.
The correspondent added that police had sent large reinforcements since Thursday afternoon, blocking major streets in Tel Aviv for fear of clashes between demonstrators who support the ruling coalition and the opposition.
"Bloodshed"
On the other hand, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said that the right-wing demonstration in Tel Aviv - which was organized by activists in the Likud party under the title "Freedom March" and in which ministers and deputies participated - is an attack on democracy, and its goal is bloodshed, as he put it.
Lapid accused right-wing supporters of aiming to repeat the scenario of the attack on the US Capitol in Washington on January 2021, <>.
The Israeli opposition has organized for weeks mass demonstrations in Tel Aviv and other cities, and unions announced a general strike, prompting the Israeli prime minister – last Monday evening – to announce the suspension of his plan, which his opponents see as undermining the independence of the judiciary and a coup against democracy.
Israel's ruling coalition remains adamant about passing the judicial amendments, although Netanyahu on Monday postponed the amendments to allow for negotiations on a compromise between his religious-nationalist coalition and opposition parties, under pressure from domestic unrest and expressions of concern and disapproval in Washington.
Talks have already begun at the home of Israeli President Isaac Herzog for a compromise between the ruling coalition and the opposition, but have so far made no progress.