US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expected to meet in Washington in July on the sidelines of the Israeli leader’s trip to address a joint session of Congress, a White House official said on Tuesday.
Netanyahu saw Biden in October when the US president visited Israel and met with him in September in New York when they both attended the opening sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.
The two men have a strong relationship that goes back four decades, but tensions first over Netanyahu’s judicial reform plan and then the Gaza prevented Biden from inviting the Israeli leader to the White House.
Netanyahu had hoped to secure a White House invitation, but the idea appeared to become a reality in the aftermath of Biden’s poor performance in the presidential debate last week, which caused concern over his competence to lead the country due to his age.
White House Press Secretary Kathrine Jean-Pierre read out a past statement from Netanyahu speaking positively about Biden’s capabilities during a press briefing in Washington on Wednesday.
In Jerusalem, Netanyahu held separate meetings with US Reps. David Kustoff (R-TN) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ).
Netanyahu told Gottheimer that he was “looking forward to his speech to Congress in which he will be able to express Israel’s position to the representatives of the American people and the entire world,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
America reiterates support for Israel
Earlier in the Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana hosted a special event in the building’s library with Kustoff and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew to inaugurate the Knesset-House Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Kustoff stressed the Congress’s strong support for Israel as it battles a two-front war on its southern and northern borders against the Iranian proxies Hamas and Hezbollah.
“In your fight to eradicate Hamas and any other genocidal extremist group that threatens your way of life, America is with you all the way,” he said.
“We will not negotiate with radical terrorists,” Kustoff said. “We will not surrender to kill us, and we will not allow evil to prosper. This fight is not one to endure alone,” he said.
“We will work together until we wipe terrorism off the face of the earth, and until Israel lives at peace with their neighbors,” Kustoff said.
“I will do everything in my power to make sure that Israel has the tools” that it “needs to defend herself and to destroy the forces” that seek to eradicate the values of the Western world, Kustoff explained.
The attacks by terror groups against Israel are also an assault on a “free and liberated society” and “a direct attack on morality, on truth, on reason, and on goodwill,” he stated.
Similarly, he said, Congress has stood firm against “the blatant and brazen forms of anti-Semitism that have arisen in the United States and all over the world.”
The event was held weeks after Netanyahu had irked Washington when he publicly complained about the slow walking of arms to Israel, which Congress had already approved. He then said that Lew had promised him the issue would be resolved.
At the Knesset event, Lew stressed the Biden Administration’s support for Israel, particularly its military support.
“Israel should know, and I believe, does know, that the United States will always be a close ally, as President Biden said on October 10 and on so many occasions since we have Israel’s back,” Lew stated.
The US commitment to Israel’s defense is ironclad,” he said, adding, “That’s going to change. Similarly, our efforts to bring all of the hostages home will not cease until we succeed.”
He recalled that Congress had approved $14 billion in military assistance to Israel, “This aid ensures that Israel’s stockpiles of munitions are replenished. The IDF is the most sophisticated military in the Middle East, and the US support guarantees that this won’t change,” he said.
Later that night he also spoke about the strong US-Israel bond in a small toned-down July 4th event.
“Even the closest of friends may disagree on occasion about how that vision should be achieved. But make no mistake: the United States and Israel are aligned on the big strategic picture. Israel must endure as a Jewish and democratic state, living in peace and prosperity alongside its neighbors, in a more secure and stable Middle East.
“As President Biden has said, there is a positive path forward toward this vision – for Israel, the United States, and our strategic partnership” he stated.
Reuters contributed to this report.