Next week, on Wednesday, July 24th, Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington, DC, although he has not yet received a formal invitation. When the Israeli prime minister has traveled to Washington every year, he’s conveyed a message of closeness and intimacy, unlike the 4 years since his last visit to the White House, something that does not go unnoticed by friends and enemies.
Netanyahu is scheduled to address a special joint session of Congress and is expected to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House, although this has not yet been confirmed. A meeting with the next U.S. president-in-waiting Donald Trump is also expected to be organized. When Netanyahu addressed Congress in 2015, then-President Barack Obama was angered that Netanyahu spoke before Congress against the Iran nuclear deal he had negotiated and refused to meet with him.
Meanwhile a national demonstration is being called by a wide range of organizations to greet the Zionist president by surrounding the U.S. Congress to take a stand with the Palestinian people and to demand an end to the genocide.
Since Netanyahu accepted an invitation last month, extended by leaders of both parties in the U.S. Congress, it sparked a public debate in Israel over whether he should accept or not, before it was known whether he would receive an invitation to meet Biden. Arguments against Netanyahu’s acceptance included that such a visit, initiated by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, was not something that pleased the White House and would only highlight partisan divisions over Israel. It has emerged that between the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19, experts estimate that there will be those who will accuse Netanyahu of trying to meddle in American politics, which could strain his relationship with Biden.
The last time Netanyahu was in the White House was in September 2020. Donald Trump was president and the occasion was the signing of the so-called Abraham Accords. Both Trump and Netanyahu lost elections soon after: Trump in November 2020 and Netanyahu in March 2021.
In 2023, when Biden belatedly invited Netanyahu, as a sign of his disapproval of the prime minister’s policies, the president was politically strong, having emerged victorious from the midterm elections, when a forecast of Republican control in both houses of Congress failed to materialize. On the other hand, Netanyahu, facing unprecedented popular opposition to his judicial reform plan, was politically weak.
Now the dynamic has changed. Both leaders are weak and both face strong calls to step aside: Biden from within his own party and Netanyahu from a street of increasingly loud protests. At the same time, Trump, with his superhero image, cannot go unnoticed by Netanyahu. And it is because both leaders are politically weak that experts believe that a meeting at the White House could benefit both:
Netanyahu will try to reaffirm his capacity as a statesman and Biden will try to demonstrate his leadership skills and mental acumen.
Source: Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) / Resumen Latinoamericano—English
Alfredo Garcia Almeida is a journalist, international analyst and collaborator from Mérida, Yucatán.