US official on Gantz visit: ‘He’s a member of the war cabinet. There’s a war going on’

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby is asked during a press briefing to weigh in on the controversy in Israel over war cabinet minister Benny Gantz’s meetings with top US officials in Washington against the wishes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“This was a request by Minister Gantz to come to the United States and have meetings. He’s a member of the war cabinet. There is a war going on between Israel and Hamas. We have been dealing with all members of the war cabinet, including Minister Gantz since… he joined the war cabinet… We see this as a natural outgrowth of those discussions,” Kirby says.

“A member of the war cabinet from Israel wants to come to the United States, wants to talk to us about the progress of that war, giving us an opportunity to talk about the importance of getting humanitarian assistance increased, an opportunity to talk about the importance of this hostage deal. We’re not going to turn away that sort of opportunity,” he adds, not revealing whether the US would take up Netanyahu if he made the same request.

Publicly, the US has not framed the meetings with Gantz as a slight at Netanyahu, who has not visited the White House since returning to the premiership in December 2022. But a US official speaking on condition of anonymity says the administration is not bothered by the perception that the meetings with Gantz send a message of its displeasure over Netanyahu’s handling of the war.