Netanyahu will walk political tightrope on US trip amid Biden chaos

Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to Washington to make a politically precarious speech for the US Congress just as US President Joe Biden announced he will drop out of the race for the White House.

With efforts ongoing to bring about a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, rising concerns about the war spreading to Lebanon and Yemen, and the United States in the midst of a dizzying election campaign, Netanyahu’s speech has the potential to cause disarray on both sides of the ocean.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday.Credit: AP

The risks only increased with Biden’s decision on Sunday (Monday AEST) to withdraw his re-election bid, especially since the choice of a replacement Democratic nominee – and the potential next American leader – is still up in the air.

A person familiar with Biden’s schedule confirmed the president will host Netanyahu at the White House. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to comment publicly, said the exact timing of the meeting had not been established because Biden was recovering from COVID-19.

Netanyahu, who was travelling on Monday, is scheduled to address Congress on Wednesday. He is also expected to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Netanyahu will deliver his congressional address with an eye on several audiences: his ultranationalist governing partners, the key to his political survival; the Biden administration, which Netanyahu counts on for diplomatic and military support; and Donald Trump’s Republican Party, which could offer Netanyahu a reset in relations if it comes to power in November.

His words risk angering any of those constituencies, which the Israeli leader cannot afford if he hopes to hold on to his tenuous grip on power.

“There are a few land mines and pitfalls on this trip,” Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israel relations at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, said before Biden’s withdrawal. “He is thought of as a political wizard who knows how to escape from traps. I am not sure he still knows how to do that.”

It is Netanyahu’s fourth speech to Congress – more than any other world leader. During his address, his far-right governing partners will want to hear his resolve to continue the war and topple Hamas.

The Biden administration will look for progress toward the latest US-backed ceasefire proposal and details on a postwar vision. Republicans hope Netanyahu besmirches Biden and bolsters the GOP’s hoped-for perception as Israel’s stalwart supporter.

Upon receiving the invitation, Netanyahu said he would “present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us”.

Biden has had to walk a fine line of his own. He has faced harsh criticism from progressive Democrats and many Arab Americans. Even Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected US Jewish official, lambasted Netanyahu in March for his handling of the war.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 15 people, including women and children in Gaza, according to hospital officials and a body count by an Associated Press journalist on Sunday.

The already precarious humanitarian conditions inside besieged Gaza have worsened with the discovery of the polio virus as water and sanitation services have suffered for the territory’s population of 2.3 million, most of it displaced. Traces of the virus were found in sewage samples in Gaza. The World Health Organization has said no one had been treated for symptoms caused by the infection.

Israel’s military said soldiers would be vaccinated, and it would work with organisations to bring in vaccines for Palestinians.

Israel’s latest airstrikes were in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where nine people, including two children, were killed, and the southern city of Khan Younis, where at least six people were killed, including two girls. Men and women wept and embraced the small bodies in white shrouds.

Smoke also rose from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, but there was no immediate word on casualties.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 38,900 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 120 remain held, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.