(Jerusalem) US President Joe Biden has invited the Israeli Prime Minister for a “meeting” soon, Benyamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Monday, amid strained relations between the two administrations.
“President Biden has invited the Prime Minister for a meeting soon in the United States. The prime minister accepted the invitation,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Mr Biden had previously criticized the Netanyahu government’s controversial judicial reform bill, one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, and the expansion of Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
In a Monday telephone conversation between the two leaders, Mr. Netanyahu “updated the American president about the law which should be passed next week before the Parliament, and his intention to try […] gain broad public support […] for the rest of the “legislative process,” says the Prime Minister’s Office.
He stressed that the interview had been “long and warm”.
The judicial reform bill, seen by its critics as an authoritarian drift, has led to massive protests in Israel for months.
PHOTO CORINNA KERN, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Demonstration in Tel Aviv on July 15
Parliament approved last week at first reading a key measure of the reform which aims to cancel the possibility for the judiciary to rule on the “reasonableness” of government decisions.
The announcement of this invitation comes the same day that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who plays an essentially ceremonial role, is to go to Washington where he was invited by Mr. Biden.
” Empty ”
Mr. Netanyahu had not been invited to the White House since he has led the government since December 2022.
Asked why he had not yet invited Mr. Netanyahu to Washington, Mr. Biden had replied earlier in July to the American television channel CNN that he had “other contacts”, such as Mr. Herzog .
PHOTO DEBBIE HILL, REUTERS ARCHIVE
Joe Biden and Binyamin Netanyahu shake hands during a meeting in Jerusalem in March 2016.
He had indicated that Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition was exacerbating tensions with the Palestinians by facilitating the establishment of settlements on Palestinian land.
This policy, associated with the weakening of the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, favored according to Mr. Biden “a favorable vacuum for extremists among the Palestinians”.
“It is one of the governments […] most extremists I have ever seen” in Israel, he added.
Along with Mr. Herzog, Mr. Biden will “emphasize the importance of the democratic values we share and the means to advance freedom, prosperity and security for Palestinians and Israelis,” according to the House spokeswoman. -Blanche Karine Jean-Pierre.
Herzog is due to address both chambers of Congress meeting in plenary session during his visit on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Binyamin Netanyahu, who won the November 2022 elections with his allies from the ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties, is accused of corruption in a series of cases.