Bid to Overhaul Courts in Israel Delayed

Netanyahu Pausing for Dialogue to Help Stave Off ‘a Civil War’

BEIJING — Since the end of World War II, the International Monetary Fund and the United States have been the world’s lenders of last resort, each wielding broad influence over the global economy. Now a new heavyweight has emerged in providing emergency loans to debt-ridden countries: China.

New data shows that China is providing ever more emergency loans to countries, including Turkey, Argentina and Sri Lanka. China has been helping countries that have geopolitical significance, like a strategic location, or lots of natural resources. Many of them have been borrowing heavily from Beijing for years to pay for infrastructure or other projects.

While China is not yet equal to the I.M.F., it is catching up fast, providing $240 billion of emergency financing in recent years. China gave $40.5 billion in such loans to distressed countries in 2021, according to a new study by American and European experts who drew on statistics from Aiddata, a research institute at William & Mary. China provided $10 billion in 2014 and none in 2010.

By comparison, the I.M.F. lent $68.6 billion to countries in financial distress in 2021 — a pace that has stayed fairly steady in recent years except for a jump in 2020, at the start of the pandemic.

In many ways, China has replaced the United States in bailing out indebted low- and middle-income countries. The U.S. Treasury’s last sizable rescue loan to a middle-income country was a $1.5 billion credit to Uruguay in 2002. The Federal Reserve still provides very short-term financing to other industrialized countries when they need extra dollars for a few days or weeks.

China’s emerging position as a lender of last resort reflects its evolving status as an economic superpower at a time of global weakness. Dozens of countries are struggling to pay their debts, as a slowing economy and rising interest rates push many nations to the brink.

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that he was delaying his government’s campaign to exert greater control over the judiciary, backing off in the face of furious public protest that has plunged Israel into one of the deepest crises of its history.

In recent weeks, Netanyahu had been unyielding in his pursuit of the court overhaul, even as protests drawing hundreds of thousands have erupted across the county. On Sunday, he fired his defense minister for even suggesting that the plan be delayed.

But on Monday, with civil unrest at new heights, with work stoppages hitting hospitals, airports and schools, and with dissent growing in the military, he relented — if only for the moment.

“When there is a possibility of preventing a civil war through dialogue, I, as the prime minister, take a timeout for dialogue,” Netanyahu said in a speech announcing the postponement.

The concession came as Itamar Ben-gvir, the head of a powerful far-right political party in Netanyahu’s

governing coalition, said he was open to delaying a parliamentary vote on overhauling the judiciary, giving Netanyahu some breathing room as protests ground the country to a halt.

By backing down, Netanyahu may be able to restore calm to the streets, but he now risks destabilizing the political coalition that he labored to assemble, finally forming a government in December. Many of his hard-right government partners had dug in their heels at any suggestion of a delayed vote.

Even as he relented on the timing, Ben-gvir made it clear that he was not giving it up. “The reform will pass,” he declared, vowing that “no one will scare us.”

And it was unclear if Netanyahu’s announcement would, in fact, appease opponents of the court plan.

The Israeli opposition parties appeared to be split over his offer of dialogue. While Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and the centrist leader of the opposition, welcomed it, if warily, Merav Michaeli, the head of the center-left Labor party, rejected it.

“How many more times can we fall into the trap of cooperating with Netanyahu?” Michaeli said, accusing him of “buying time at the expense of our democracy.”

The protesters, too, seemed unpersuaded.

“So long as the legislation continues and has not been shelved, we will be in the streets,” an informal protest body known simply as “the struggle HQ” said in a statement. “This is another attempt to weaken the protest.”

Still, after the Netanyahu announcement, the head of Israel’s main labor union called off a general strike planned for Tuesday.

The tensions began after the Netanyahu government moved to give itself more control over the appointment of judges — including those who sit on the Supreme Court.