U.S. President Joe Biden plans to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday afternoon, Jerusalem’s Prime Minister’s Office announced on Tuesday.
The White House did not immediately confirm the meeting, which was initially scheduled for Tuesday before Biden tested positive for COVID. The meeting, according to the Prime Minister’s Office, is scheduled for 1 p.m.—8 p.m. in Israel.
The Washington meeting would mark the first time Biden hosted Netanyahu at the White House since the longtime Israeli leader returned to office following the Jewish state’s November 2022 election.
The two leaders met in September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said on Monday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will likely attend the meeting. “I would expect that he would attend the meeting with the president,” Miller told reporters. “But that meeting has not yet been formally announced.”
Netanyahu arrived in Washington on Monday, seeking to solidify bipartisan support following Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 election and amid ongoing conflicts on the Jewish state’s borders.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress during which he intends to present a “new way” of dealing with the threat that Iran’s axis of evil presents and to highlight Jerusalem’s efforts to achieve victory over Hamas, an Israeli official familiar with the plans said.
As part of the visit, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Biden has endorsed for the Democratic nomination for president since he dropped out of the race.
On Monday, Biden called in live to a Harris campaign event screened on video and discussed the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“We’ve got to keep working for an end to the war in Gaza. I’ll be working very closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end and Middle East peace,” Biden said. “And get all those hostages home. I think we’re on the verge of being able to do that.”
