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Netanyahu had not received an invitation to the White House since taking office over six months ago.
By Ben Rappaport, United with Israel
US President Joe Biden has extended an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a visit in the US “soon,” Netanyahu’s office said Monday.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the two had a “long and warm conversation.”
“President Biden invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to meet soon in the United States. The Prime Minister accepted the invitation and it was agreed that Israeli and American teams will coordinate the details of the meeting,” the PMO said.
At a press briefing on Monday, White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby said the two agreed “they will meet probably before the end of this year.”
“All the details of the ‘wheres’ and the ‘whens’ are still being worked out,” Kirby added.
Kirby emphasized, though, that, despite the invitation, the Biden administration is still concerned about Israel’s “judicial reforms” and about “extremist activities and behavior by some members” of the Israeli government.
“You shouldn’t take away from the fact that they had a conversation today and that they’ll meet again in the fall that we have less concerns over these judicial reforms or less concerns over some of the extremist activities and behavior by some members of the Netanyahu cabinet,” he said.
“Those concerns are still valid. They’re disturbing.”
The comments come as Israeli President Isaac Herzog flies to the US, where he will meet with Biden and address a joint session of Congress. Some members of congress have indicated they will boycott the address.
Netanyahu, despite serving in his latest term for over six months, had until now not received an official invitation from the White House. Israeli prime ministers have traditionally made a visit to the White House much sooner after taking office.
Kirby said that while Israeli judicial reform would “certainly be a topic of discussion” in Biden’s meeting with Herzog, “as it was today in the call with the Prime Minister,” it was not “the sole topic of concern.”
“There’s an awful lot of other issues, which I fully expect will come up with the meeting with President Herzog tomorrow: the destabilizing activity out of Iran […]; the potential for additional protests now in Iran, now that the morality police is back on the streets and minding what women are wearing; as well as climate change and other broad regional security issues, including the normalization and — and stronger integration of Israel in — into the Middle East,” Kirby said.
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