Biden to meet PM Netanyahu at White House before Congress speech next week

American hostage families request meeting with Netanyahu in Washington

Read this article in:

U.S. President Joe Biden has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a meeting at the White House next Monday, Israeli media reported. This will be Netanyahu’s first visit to Washington since returning to office in 2022.

The meeting will take place two days before Netanyahu's scheduled address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, after which the prime minister will return to Israel.

Amid tense relations between the two governments in the period before the war, Biden and Netanyahu have met only twice since 2022: Once for a short meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 2023, and during Biden’s visit to Israel shortly after the Hamas invasion and massacre on Oct. 7.

One week before Netanyahu’s visit, Israel’s National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer will hold talks within the framework of the Strategic Dialogue Forum between the United States and Israel in the White House, the Prime Minister’s Office stated.

The Israeli prime minister's already-charged visit to Washington will now also take place in the shadow of Sunday’s assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump, adding to the Israeli security team’s existing security concerns, including highly-anticipated pro-Palestinian protests.

In addition, Netanyahu, who quickly released a statement condemning the attack, may have to walk a tightrope in his statements with Biden, with whom he has had good personal relations but political differences, as well as Trump, whose policies have been unabashedly pro-Israel but who, some years ago, lashed out at the prime minister, saying Netanyahu “disappointed him.”

On the sidelines of Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. capital, a group of families of American hostages still being held in Gaza requested a meeting with the prime minister, according to the Axios news outlet.

The group represents families of five living and three murdered hostages, as well as two who were released last November. They reportedly intend to push Netanyahu to secure a hostage and truce deal with Hamas leadership during the meeting.

“Collectively, we have never met the Prime Minister as a group, and we believe the visit presents an unmissable opportunity, as there is no better time to meet than when he is on U.S. soil,” they wrote in letter to Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Mike Herzog.

“We believe the time is ripe to discuss the Israeli government’s strategy for securing the release of our loved ones and how the Prime Minister intends to implement that strategy.”

“Delivering a speech to Congress about Israel's military operation in Gaza without meeting with the families of the American hostages would signal that the fate of the hostages is not the highest priority for Israel's government,” the letter read.

Biden hosted former American hostage Liat Atzili, who was released by Hamas last November. In addition, several other high-ranking administration officials have met the families of U.S. hostages in recent months.