Biden invites Netanyahu to US after months of stiffing him

President Biden extended his first official invite to Benjamin Netanyahu to the US since the Israeli prime minister reclaimed office last December.

“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,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Specifics of the visit are still being hashed out.

The invite comes ahead of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to the US where he will attend a joint meeting of Congress Wednesday and commemorate the 75th anniversary of Israel’s statehood.

“They have agreed that they will meet, probably before the end of this year, and all the details of the wheres and the whens are still being worked out,” John Kirby, the strategic communications director at the US National Security Council said.

Netanyahu and Biden publicly clashed back in March over the prime minister’s proposed judicial overhaul plans, which triggered international outcry.

At the time, Biden said he hoped Netanyahu “walks away from” his overhaul plans and that he was “very concerned” about it. He also indicated that there were no “near-term” plans to invite him to the White House. 

Netanyahu later downplayed the public dust-up, saying that “friends can have disagreements on occasion.”

Heeding to public pressure, Netanyahu briefly put the reform plans on pause, but recently opted to revive those efforts with some modifications to appease critics.

The White House says Biden expressed his concerns about the judicial overhaul plans during his conversation with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s office described the call as “long and warm.”

It is not clear if the prime minister will be invited to the Oval Office.

News of Netanyahu’s invitation to the US comes amid controversy in the Democratic Party over Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal’s (D-Wash.) description of Israel.

She later clarified that she does “not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist, but instead believes “Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies.”

A deluge of politicians from across party lines condemned her initial statement.

Some Democrats such as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) have declared that they will boycott Herzog’s address to Congress due to the concerns about treatment of the Palestinians.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) hinted he would invite Netanyahu to address Congress if Biden did not invite him to the US. McCarthy visited Israel earlier this year and addressed the Knesset.

Netanyahu began his third term as prime minister of America’s staunchest Middle Eastern ally in December, after he was briefly ousted from the role amidst blowback to a corruption scandal. 

He is the longest serving prime minister of the Jewish State, a role he has held for over 15 years.