From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Lapid meets top Biden administration officials in Washington
Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid meets with Biden administration officials and senators in Washington, as part of a visit aimed at expressing his view on a burgeoning US-brokered normalization deal with Saudi Arabia.
In his meetings with US Special Presidential Coordinator for Global Infrastructure and Energy Security Amos Hochstein and White House Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, Lapid “asked that Israel’s security interests be preserved in any future agreement,” says the Yesh Atid leader’s spokesperson.
In addition to discussing “various regional issues related to the Middle East and the Gulf,” Lapid “emphasized the shared values of Israel and the United States as strong democracies.”
Lapid leads the opposition against the government’s ongoing attempts to sap the judiciary of its power. In July, US President Joe Biden took the rare step of publicly calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to slow the pace of judicial changes in order to allow for broad consensus, a suggestion Netanyahu rebuffed.
Lapid also has meetings scheduled with Democratic senators Jon Ossoff, Mark Kelly, Tim Kaine, Ben Cardin, Chris Van Hollen, Chris Murphy, and Jacky Rosen.
He will also meet with the Israeli envoy to Washington, Mike Herzog.
Lapid arrived in Washington last night and is scheduled to depart back to Israel this evening.
