President Joe Biden extended a formal invitation Thursday to Israel’s ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, to visit the White House next Tuesday — while continuing to snub Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden has refused to grant Netanyahu the customary invitation given to all Israeli prime ministers to visit the White House ever since Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition swept parliamentary elections last November.
In March, Biden said he would not meet with Netanyahu even after the prime minister suspended controversial judicial reforms that the Biden administration openly opposes. Biden recently doubled down on that refusal.
Herzog, who was once a left-wing politician, ran against Netanyahu and lost in a close election in 2015. He was later elected president by the Knesset in 2021, a non-governing position that functions as a head of state.
He had already been invited last month by leaders of both parties to address a joint session of Congress on July 19 to mark Israel’s 75 years of independence. The White House made its own invitation official on Thursday.
Biden has thus attempted to split Israel’s leaders and to send a signal to Israeli voters — that leaders like Herzog are acceptable, but those like Netanyahu are not, despite the democratically-expressed will of the Israeli people.
Even that is not good enough for some in Biden’s party. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has said she will boycott Herzog’s address. She was barred from entering Israel in 2019 due to her support for international boycotts.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.