JERUSALEM, Israel – After nearly 7 months in office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has received a long-awaited invitation to meet with President Joe Biden.
The gesture comes as Israel’s President Isaac Herzog visits Biden today at the White House.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Biden and Netanyahu shared a “warm and long” call. They discussed regional issues, including the threat from Iran, Israeli-Palestinian relations, and expanding peace in the region.
Netanyahu also updated the president on the status of the judicial reform legislation, one reason for the current rift in their relationship.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby was not specific about whether the meeting would be at the White House, or as some have suggested, at September’s United Nations General Assembly gathering, where Netanyahu is scheduled to address the world body. He also did not announce a definite time frame for the meeting.
Kirby continued to voice concerns about the current Israeli government.
“The call fell today, he said Monday. “That doesn’t mean that – and you shouldn’t take away from the fact that – they had a conversation today and that they’ll meet again in the fall, that we have less concerns over these judicial reforms, or or less concerns over some of the extremist activities and behavior by some members of the Netanyahu cabinet. Those concerns are still valid. They’re – they’re disturbing.”
Kirby’s remarks parallel how President Biden described Israel’s current government under Netanyahu recently when he told CNN, “This is one of the most extreme members of cabinets that I’ve seen, and I go all the way back to Golda Meir (50 years ago).”
Word of the Netanyahu invitation came on the eve of Herzog’s Tuesday White House meeting. The Israeli president is also slated to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.
On Sunday, before Netanyahu’s invitation, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on the United States to reevaluate its relations with Israel. According to Israel National News, Olmert told DemocraTV, “I call on the United States to make a new assessment of relations with Israel for all that this implies. I call on world leaders not to meet with Netanyahu.”
Alex Traiman, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for JNS News, told CBN News, “It’s not just Ehud Olmert. It’s also (former Prime Minister) Ehud Barak, former candidates for prime minister like Tzipi Livni and interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid – all of them are lobbying the Biden administration and other world leaders to put immense pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Traiman says this kind of lobbying is a first for Israel.
“It’s absolutely unprecedented, but it’s also very harmful to the state of Israel; because, don’t expect world leaders and others to parse between Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders,” he noted. “What this does is magnify opposition to Israel generally – not just to Netanyahu and his policies.”
Despite the invitation and the phone conversation, deep divisions remain between the White House and the Netanyahu government on a number of issues, including an Iranian nuclear deal, building settlements in Israel’s biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, plus the ongoing judicial reform issue.
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