There were several tweets on Tuesday that cited President Joe Biden essentially contradicting his ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, who earlier in the day told Israel’s Army Radio Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was going to be invited to the White House soon (US Ambassador: Netanyahu Will Be Invited to the White House after Passover).
Below are all the citations taken from Biden’s two conversations with reporters on Tuesday that touched on the subjects of Israel and Netanyahu. In summation: there will be no invitation to the White House any time soon, and it’s hard to tell whether the president had been briefed on Netanyahu’s announcement that he is suspending the judicial reform:
Biden: "Like many strong supporters of Israel I'm very concerned. I'm concerned that they get this straight. They cannot continue down this road. Netanyahu won't be invited to the White House in the near term" pic.twitter.com/YeuH6QbT3c
— Yosef Yisrael (@yosefyisrael25) March 28, 2023
4:13 P.M. EDT
Q Can we ask about Israel? How concerned are you about the health of democracy there in Israel?
THE PRESIDENT: Like many strong supporters of Israel, I’m very concerned. And I’m concerned that they get this straight. They cannot continue down this road.
And I’ve sort of made that clear. I — hopeful — hopefully, the prime minister will act in a way that he is going to try to work out some genuine compromise. But that remains to be seen.
Q Are you inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House, sir? Do you believe he’ll be coming to Washington?
THE PRESIDENT: Not — not in the near term.
Q Did you speak to him on the phone? Did you speak to him on the phone in the middle of all this?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I — I did not. I delivered a message through our ambassador.
Later during the same interaction:
Q On Israel, just one follow. On those who say that America shouldn’t be involved in domestic politics and shouldn’t be interfering, how do you respond to that with —
THE PRESIDENT: We don’t want to interfere. It’s a little bit like if all the things — things are exploding in America.
What do you think would happen if, all of a sudden — well, I know — I’m not going to even speculate.
Anyway, we’re not interfering. They know my position. They know America’s position. They know the American Jewish position, the Amer- — anyway.
Q Do you believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to go ahead with the judicial overhaul?
AIDE: Thank you.
5:30 P.M. EDT
Q Are you worried about Israel’s democracy in general? Like, does it have a — is it secure or are they at an inflection point as you often talk about?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don’t know they’re at an inflection point, but I think it’s a difficult spot to be in and they got to work it out.
Q And what do you hope the prime minister will do on that particular law?
THE PRESIDENT: I hope he — I hope he walks away from it.
In other words, the rift between Bibi and Joe is still there, Ambassador Nides was just making it up as he went along. See you next update.
