Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet President Joe Biden at the White House on July 22, ahead of his address to a joint session of Congress, an Israeli official said on Sunday.
The Washington meeting marks the first time Biden has hosted Netanyahu at the White House since the longtime Israeli leader returned to office following the Jewish state’s 2022 election.
The two leaders last met in October, when Biden visited the Jewish state in the aftermath of Hamas’s massacre of some 1,200 people in southern Israel.
Biden had been criticized for not inviting Netanyahu to the White House, with former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman telling JNS last year that the president’s failure to do so was “despicable.”
The two men did meet in the U.S. in September, but Biden chose to hold the sit-down with Netanyahu on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual session in New York.
Netanyahu is set to address a joint session of Congress on July 24, at the invitation of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
The speech will mark the fourth time the Israeli premier has addressed the legislatures, more than any other foreign leader.
The invite “symbolizes the U.S. and Israel’s enduring relationship and will offer Prime Minister Netanyahu the opportunity to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending their democracy, combating terror, and establishing just and lasting peace in the region,” the four American lawmakers said.
White House officials previously declined to say whether Biden would hold a tête-à-tête with Netanyahu during his visit to Washington.
“I don’t have anything to announce today, and as you know, the schedulers run the White House, so I’m not in a position to be able to announce in advance visits like that,” U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CBS News‘ “Face the Nation” program on June 9.
