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By Menachem Wecker
(AUGUST 14, 2023 / The Jewish Voice) It’s the gift that keeps on not giving. Months after Benjamin Netanyahu was reelected Israeli prime minister late last year, U.S. President Joe Biden has yet to invite the leader of one of Washington’s closest allies to the White House.
The Biden administration has twice extended an invitation to Israeli President Isaac Herzog to visit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and Herzog made his latest trip to Washington in mid-July. Some decried that invitation as a breach of protocol, as Israel’s presidency is a symbolic role, while the prime minister heads the government.
Then diplomatic protocol seesawed again, and again. Timed around Herzog’s visit, Biden and Netanyahu spoke on the phone, after which the Israeli leader announced that he had finally been invited to meet Biden. But rather than that being the end of the story, White House and State Department spokesmen have repeatedly declined to name the venue of the meeting, even when asked to confirm that it was to be the White House.
And then, last week, Israeli media reported that the Biden administration had confirmed it had not invited Netanyahu to the White House, although articles cited atmospheric quotes from the White House stating, as it had for weeks, that the meeting would occur somewhere in the United States, rather than flat-out denying a White House meeting.
As the Biden administration demurs in its public statements about the nature of the invitation, JNS sought answers from declared 2024 candidates about how soon, if at all, into their presidencies they would invite Netanyahu—or another Israeli prime minister—to the White House, and what they made of Biden’s handling of a potential Oval Office invite to the Israeli premier. Three campaigns responded.
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