President Joe Biden, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in New York on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Netanyahu is to meet President Biden and address Congress this week, swapping one political maelstrom at home for another in Washington. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
By ISABEL KERSHNER
With his visit to Washington this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will step away from one political maelstrom and into another.
He is facing anger at home over the prolonged war in the Gaza Strip and failure to bring home the hostages held in the enclave. Washington is divided over Israel’s conduct of the war and treatment of the Palestinians.
But now, the U.S. government and the entire country is preoccupied by the political upheaval surrounding President Joe Biden’s withdrawal over the weekend from the presidential race.
This was not at all what Netanyahu had in mind when he planned his first visit to Washington in almost four years. He is supposed to meet face to face with Biden, though it is unclear when. He is also expected to meet Vice President Kamala Harris, who looks set to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. And the Israeli leader is set to address Congress on Wednesday, hoping to shore up support in the face of increasing international censure over the war in Gaza.
“I will seek to anchor the bipartisan support that is so important for Israel,” Netanyahu said shortly before departing Israel on Monday. “In this time of war and uncertainty, it’s important that Israel’s enemies know that America and Israel stand together today, tomorrow and always.”
The timing may be complicated for the Israeli prime minister. But it is also critical that he secure Biden’s support for the months remaining in the president’s term, even as their relationship has grown testier recently as their goals in the Middle East diverge somewhat.
Netanyahu is also aiming to rehabilitate his image on the world stage — at least for his audience back home, where he is in a constant battle for his political survival. But some political analysts suggested that he was about the only person still attaching any importance to his U.S. visit.
“Nobody is focused on this,” said Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and analyst who worked as an aide to Netanyahu in the 1990s. “In less than 10 days, there’s been an assassination attempt on one president and another dropping out of the race,” he added of the turmoil in the United States.
“This is not the right time — for America or for Israel.”
Former President Donald Trump, who was wounded but survived a shooting on July 13, was in office when Netanyahu last came to Washington, in September 2020. Now, he is running again as the Republican candidate. Netanyahu and Trump may also meet this week.
When Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, some of his staunchest allies will be sitting alongside fierce critics.
The invitation for the address was issued jointly by the top four congressional leaders in a show of bipartisan unity that belied a tense debate behind the scenes about receiving him. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and the Senate majority leader, has been sharply critical of Netanyahu and called for him to step down this year. But in joining the leaders’ request for the address to Congress, he said that America’s relationship with Israel “transcends one person or prime minister.”
As a result, this address is expected to be less contentious than Netanyahu’s last one, in 2015, when the Republican House speaker at the time invited him without informing the White House and infuriated President Barack Obama.
Netanyahu then used the platform to rail against the Obama administration’s negotiating of a nuclear pact between world powers and Iran, driving a partisan wedge into the traditionally bipartisan support that Israel had long counted on.
Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday is expected to be more conciliatory.
Still, coming at a time when Harris has pledged to do everything in her power to unite her party and the nation, Netanyahu’s visit may only serve to expose more of the cracks and divisions as some Democrats could boycott or try to disrupt his speech.
Harris has been more critical of Israel than Biden at times since Israel began its military offensive in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel.
The vice president has declined to preside over the joint session of Congress on Wednesday. An aide cited a scheduling conflict, adding that her absence should not be construed as a change in her commitment to Israel’s security, and that she would meet Netanyahu this week in the White House.
The high civilian toll from the war in Gaza, where more than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health authorities, has created animus in the United States even among some of Israel’s traditionally ardent supporters.
Netanyahu’s visit to Washington has also riled many Israelis, who said he should not be leaving the country as it is battles foes on multiple fronts and before he has secured the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
He has articulated no clear vision for Gaza after the war. Tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from the northern and southern border areas are still displaced from their homes, with little idea of when they can return.
“He has no business going to Washington,” said Barak, the pollster, “because he has unfinished business in Israel.”
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