Biden to meet with Netanyahu at White House on July 22
As he fights an uphill election battle, US president will play host two days before the prime minister’s speech to Congress, after keeping him at arm’s length
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Joe Biden in Washington on July 22, two days ahead of the premier’s speech before a joint session of Congress, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Sunday.
The meeting will take place in the White House, said the official.
This will be the first time Biden has hosted Netanyahu in Washington since the prime minister’s latest term began in late 2022. The White House had already indicated that the two leaders would most likely meet when Netanyahu is in Washington.
“The president has known Prime Minister Netanyahu for three decades. They will likely see each other when the prime minister is here over the course of that week, but we have nothing to announce at this time,” a White House official told The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu is slated to take off from Israel early on July 22, and to return three days later.
Netanyahu last met with Biden when the president traveled to Israel days after Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught. They also met in the US two weeks before the attack, but the administration chose to hold the sit-down on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York and not at the White House.
Biden has hesitated to embrace the prime minister, who formed a coalition with far-right lawmakers that have advanced a series of policies opposed by the US, including a controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary, which faced massive backlash in Israel and has been shelved since the outbreak of the war.
Netanyahu’s July 24 speech is causing consternation among many Democrats, many of whom are torn between their long-standing support for Israel and dismay over the way Israel has conducted military operations in Gaza.
While some Democrats are saying they will attend out of respect for Israel, a larger and growing faction wants no part in it, creating an extraordinarily charged atmosphere at a gathering that normally amounts to a ceremonial, bipartisan show of support for an American ally.
Complicating matters for Biden and the Democrats is that the president is trailing badly in polls against challenger Donald Trump. Snubbing Netanyahu would turn off many potential supporters, as would embracing him too tightly.
The invitation from House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, to Netanyahu came after consultation with the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive subject.
Tensions between Netanyahu’s office and the Biden administration re-emerged in June, when the prime minister issued a video statement slamming the “inconceivable” “bottlenecks” that the US had placed in transferring shipments of weapons and ammunition and claiming that he had raised the issue during his meeting the previous week with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who assured him that Washington would address the issue.
The video shocked the Biden administration, which has insisted that it had no idea what Netanyahu was talking about. There was one shipment of high-payload bombs that was held up in May due to US fears that it would be used in the then-crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, but all other transfers are continuing at a regular pace, the US has insisted.
Two days later, the White House went further, calling Netanyahu’s video “deeply disappointing,” given that “there’s no other country that’s done more or will continue to do more than the United States to help Israel.” Netanyahu retorted that he was prepared to incur such criticism as long as Israel “receives the ammo it needs from the US in an existential war.”
There have also been strains over other issues, including efforts to reach a ceasefire deal on which Biden’s entire regional plan hinges. But US frustration with Hamas has grown in recent weeks, with Washington blaming the terror group for initially rejecting the proposal submitted by Israel on May 27, which Biden detailed in a May 31 speech.
There has been positive momentum in recent days, however. Earlier this month, Hamas sent Israel a response to the latest proposal for a hostage and ceasefire deal.
But there are still ongoing disputes. Last Thursday, the Biden administration issued its fifth batch of sanctions against Israeli extremists and illegal outposts, targeting three individuals and five entities, including the anti-miscegenation Lehava group led by already-designated extremist Benzi Gopstein, an ally of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
