Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited to Washington to meet President Joe Biden on Tuesday and to address Congress on Wednesday, July 24.
“I am thrilled at the privilege of representing Israel before both houses of Congress and telling them the truth about our just war against those who seek to kill us.” Benyamin Netanyahu declared in early June after being invited by Republican and Democratic parliamentary leaders.
The Israeli president’s visit, which comes after nine months of war between the Israeli army and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, will be an opportunity for him to strengthen ties between Israel and the United States.
A tense atmosphere
“The atmosphere has never been so tense […] especially between the White House and the Israeli Prime Minister. explained Steven Cook, Middle East specialist at the American think tank Council on Foreign Relations.
Irritated by the consequences of Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack, Washington regularly insists on the protection of civilians in Gaza and access to humanitarian aid. The United States is also trying, together with Qatar and Egypt, to resume negotiations on a ceasefire.
“It’s important to make sure we have a plan in place, what we’re working on every day, with Arab partners, with Israel, […] for governance, security, humanitarian aid, reconstruction » of Gaza, the head of US diplomacy Antony Blinken said on Friday. He believes that the discussions with the Israeli Prime Minister, whose visit to the United States is still uncertain, “will focus on it”.
“We are with Israel”
Netanyahu’s invitation to Washington was extended by Republican and Democratic legislative leaders. In their invitation, the four leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate wrote: “We stand with the State of Israel in its fight against terrorism, especially at this time when Hamas continues to hold American and Israeli citizens captive and its leaders endanger regional stability.”
All against the background of an election campaign in the United States between the support of the Republican Donald Trump and the Democratic President Joe Biden. This is noted by the specialist in Israeli-American relations Yossi Mekelberg “Republicans are trying to score cheap points with voters by showing that they are more favorable to Israel than Joe Biden.”
“No travel without prior agreement”
This trip to Washington by Benjamin Netanyahu will be scrutinized in Israel, where the families of the hostages still held in Gaza are demanding a deal for their return during near-daily demonstrations. “No travel without prior agreement”shouted hundreds of relatives during a demonstration on Wednesday July 17 in Tel Aviv.
“It is a visit that Netanyahu sees above all as a way to restore his image with Israelis by showing himself as the only leader capable of addressing the US Congress », Estimates Michael Horowitz, expert in geopolitics for the security consultancy Le Beck.
The Israeli prime minister’s trip comes as deadly IDF attacks continue in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 64 people in the past 24 hours, the Hamas government’s health ministry said on Sunday (July 21). According to this same source, the death toll from the war led by Israel in the Gaza Strip amounts to 38,983 deaths, the majority of them civilians.
In a new regional escalation, strikes by Israeli warplanes also targeted Houthi rebels in the port of Hodeidah in Yemen this Saturday, July 20, causing a huge fire. In response to these attacks, Yemeni rebels threatened Israel this Sunday with a “Huge response”.
