vice president Kamala Harris the Prime Minister will not preside Benjamin Netanyahujoint speech to Congress on Wednesday. Instead, Senator Ben Cardin, D-Md. will oversee the event, two congressional aides told NBC News on Monday.
While the vice president normally presides over joint speeches, Harris is expected to travel for her presidential campaign, which she launched on Sunday, after the president Joe Biden dramatically withdrew from re-election bid and supported her in the race against the former president donald trump. However, she is expected to meet Netanyahu separately during her visit.
NBC News has reached out to Harris’ office for comment.
Cardin will preside over the joint address, followed by Sen. Patty Murray D-WA. she declined an invitation to oversee the event, her office confirmed to NBC News. Murray’s office did not provide a reason why she declined and did not say whether she plans to attend the speech, which dozens of liberal lawmakers are expected to boycott.
Cardin, an Orthodox Jew, has been a vocal supporter of Israel in the months since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks and amid Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s visit comes as he seeks to strengthen Israel’s relationship with its closest ally, while facing growing pressure to attack a ceasefire agreement This would end the fighting in Gaza, where Palestinian health officials say more than 39,000 people have been killed in the Israeli offensive on the enclave following multi-pronged Hamas attacks on October 7.
Before leaving on Monday, Netanyahu said that regardless of who is elected president in November, Israel will continue to be “America’s indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East.” He said he planned to meet with Biden this week, although it is unclear exactly when that might happen as the president recovers from the crisis. Covid. Reuters reported that the meeting would likely take place on Thursday.
Netanyahu added that it would be an opportunity to thank Biden “for the things he did for Israel in the war,” which began after Hamas launched multipronged attacks on Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking approximately 250 hostages.
An Israeli government spokesman said Netanyahu would address both houses of Congress on Wednesday in an attempt to “anchor the bipartisan support that is so important to Israel.”
In addition to meeting with Biden and Harris, aides to Netanyahu and former President Donald Trump also discussed the possibility of a meeting this week, according to six people familiar with the discussions.
Nimrod Goren, senior fellow for Israeli Affairs at the Middle East Institute, said Netanyahu appeared determined to put “a positive spin” on his visit as “a kind of period of closure” for Israel’s relationship with the Biden administration before a new leader takes power next time. year.
“Whether Biden agrees with it or not, that will be interesting,” Goren said, adding that the president could use his final months in office to “put more pressure on Netanyahu” to agree to a ceasefire agreement, enshrining the achievement. as part of his legacy.
But Gershon Baskin, an Israeli who has advised his own government and several world leaders on the Middle East peace process and served as a mediator with Hamas for decades, said he believed Netanyahu would not “take Biden very seriously.”
“He is out of the race. He has no chance of winning. He is no longer important to Netanyahu,” he said, adding that the Israeli leader likely viewed the US leader as “a lame duck.”
Netanyahu’s visit will likely be more “low-key” than he might have initially anticipated, Goren said, as he faces the difficult balance of trying to appeal to key players with conflicting interests. Baskin offered a similar analysis.
Among those with whom Netanyahu is likely to try to strengthen ties is Harris, who appears more willing than Biden and other American politicians to publicly criticize the Israeli leader and express empathy for the plight of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, former officials and analysts say.
NBC News reported in March that National Security Council officials softened parts of a speech by Harris on the need for a six-week ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas. A spokesperson for Harris at the time called the depiction “inaccurate.”
The vice president has strong ties to the Jewish community in the US, with her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, becoming the first Jewish spouse of a vice president and taking on the role of liaison to America’s Jewish community.
“The meeting with Kamala Harris now takes on a new layer of importance,” said Goren. “Before, it wasn’t seen as the key to this visit, and now it’s much more significant.”
A meeting with Trump It would also likely be a priority for Netanyahu and “demonstrate some political strength” in his ability to restore relations with the White House if it came under Republican leadership next year, Goren said.
As of Monday, any plans for a reunion did not appear to have been finalized. A person familiar with Trump’s schedule said Tuesday was the only day that would work logistically for the former president.
On Monday, Netanyahu met with representatives of families in the US whose loved ones are among those held hostage in Gaza by Hamas. He told them that Israel was determined to bring back all hostages held in Gaza, including those killed.
The meeting came as it emerged that two hostages, Yagev Buchshtab, 35, and Alex Dancyg, 76, had died while in Hamas captivity. The Israel Defense Forces said the circumstances of his death were still under investigation.
Netanyahu’s visit has been a point of contention in the US, where protests calling for an end to the war are expected. Back home, before leaving, families and supporters of Israeli hostages held in Gaza gathered at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport on Sunday to urge Netanyahu to focus on reaching a deal to secure their release.
Netanyahu also faces pressure from human rights groups after the International Court of Justice in a striking opinion on Friday, it ruled that Israel violated international law with its occupation of Palestinian territories, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Israel continued to intensify its offensive in the Gaza Strip. On Monday, the IDF ordered Palestinians to evacuate parts of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Health officials in the enclave said at least 70 people were killed and more than 200 injured during Israeli military operations in the area.
The IDF said the requests for temporary evacuations were made to “mitigate harm to the civilian population” and later said its forces attacked more than 30 “terrorist infrastructure sites in Khan Younis.”
The orders came after thousands of people fled to the city, after Israel intensified its offensive further south, in Rafah, the city that borders Egypt and which the Israeli military once declared a safe zone.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
