Blinken expected to join Biden, Netanyahu meeting on Thursday
U.S. President Joe Biden, joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is briefed on the terrorist assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in the Oval Office of the White House. Credit: Cameron Smith/White House.
by Joshua Marks
(JNS) — When U.S. President Joe Biden meets in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will likely be in attendance as well.
“I would expect that he would attend the meeting with the president,” Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, told reporters on July 22. “But that meeting has not yet been formally announced.”
Originally announced for July 23, the meeting has reportedly been rescheduled for July 25.
According to Axios, Netanyahu’s office was still awaiting a response from the White House on July 22. The Israeli prime minister is also slated to meet this week with Kamala Harris, the U.S. vice president whom Biden has endorsed for the Democratic nomination for president.
Harris will be absent from Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Though it is customary for vice presidents who additionally serve as presidents of the Senate to attend speeches by foreign leaders, she has declined to preside over the session in question.
An aide to Harris told The New York Times on July 22 that her absence will be due to a scheduling conflict and does not reflect a change in her position vis-a-vis Israel.
Two people familiar with the plans for the speech told the Times that Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee and is a Jewish pro-Israel Democrat, will sit beside House Speaker Mike Johnson and behind Netanyahu during the address.
Asked whether Blinken will meet with the hostage families who are in Washington, Miller said, “I don’t have any meetings to announce today.”
“He has met a number of times with the families of hostages, both on our trips to Israel and here at home. And he’s met with them 10 times — more than 10 times,” said Miller. “It has been a consistent priority of his to meet with hostage families and let them know all that we’re trying to do to bring their relatives home.”
Netanyahu took off on July 22 for Washington, where he is seeking to solidify bipartisan support for the Jewish state on the backdrop of Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 election.
“I am leaving this for a very important trip to the United States at a time when Israel is fighting on seven fronts and when there is great political uncertainty in Washington,” said Netanyahu on the tarmac before boarding his flight.
“I will seek to anchor the bipartisan support that is so important for Israel. And I will tell my friends on both sides of the aisle that regardless of who the American people choose as their next president, Israel remains America’s indispensable and strong ally in the Middle East,” he added.
“It will also be an opportunity to discuss with [Biden] how to advance in the critical months ahead the goals that are important for both our countries: Achieving the release of all our hostages, defeating Hamas, confronting the terror axis of Iran and its proxies, and ensuring that all Israeli citizens return safely to their homes in the north and in the south,” continued the premier.
On July 22, Biden called in live to a Harris campaign event screened on video and discussed the Gaza war, among other issues.
“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. And get all those hostages home. I think we’re on the verge of being able to do that,” the president said.
