President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Wednesday for the first time in more than 50 days.
It comes after new tensions in relations between the two countries, with Netanyahu refusing to approve Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s visit to the US on Tuesday until Biden called.
The phone was connected immediately after that.
Prime Minister Netanyahu met with former President Trump on Wednesday before meeting with Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris also joined the president on the call.
This comes as Israel considers its options for retaliating against the barrage of missiles launched by Iran towards the Jewish state last week.
Gallant warned on Wednesday that Israel’s response was certain to catch Iran by surprise.
“As we have shown so far in this war and in every field, anyone who attacks Israel will pay a price. Our attacks will be powerful, precise and above all amazing. “They won’t understand what happened or how it happened,” he said. said at a briefing by the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Department.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with President Biden on Wednesday. (Israel Prime Minister’s Office)
Biden warned Netanyahu to ensure the response was “proportional” and to avoid attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Their long-standing relationship deteriorated in the months following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
A further sign of mutual disdain between the two sides came on the one-year anniversary of the attack, when Biden called Israeli President Isaac Herzog about Prime Minister Netanyahu.
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Since the last call from world leaders, Israel has launched an aggressive offensive operation in Lebanon and succeeded in eliminating Hezbollah’s top leadership in a short period of time.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an Israeli airstrike killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and his successor.
President Biden will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House on July 25, 2024.
Smoke and flames rise in Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli airstrike, as seen from Sin el Fir, Lebanon, October 6, 2024. (Reuters/Amr Abdallah Darsh)
Prime Minister Netanyahu is also known for his distrust of the defense minister, and has twice tried to fire him. Mr. Gallant publicly criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu for failing to articulate a postwar plan for Gaza.
During a particularly heated April phone call, Biden asked Netanyahu, “What’s your strategy?” As Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward writes in his new book, War:
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At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel was Hamas’ stronghold and said it had to enter Rafah, the border city between Gaza and Egypt.
“Bibi, you don’t have a strategy,” Biden reportedly told Netanyahu, adding that Netanyahu “doesn’t care” about Hamas and “only thinks about himself.” He is also said to have claimed that there is no such thing.
After Israel entered Rafah, Biden said of Netanyahu, “He’s a terrible liar.”
“That son of a bitch, Bibi Netanyahu, he’s a bad guy,” Biden said privately, Woodward said. “He’s a bad guy!”
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Mr. Biden said Mr. Woodward’s account gave him the impression that Mr. Netanyahu was “regularly lying.” Prime Minister Netanyahu “kept saying he was going to kill every last member of Hamas.” “Biden has threatened publicly and privately to withhold shipments of U.S. offensive weapons and has told them that is not possible,” Woodward wrote.
