Next week, on Wednesday, July 24, Israeli Prime Minister and war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit Washington, DC, although he has not yet received a formal invitation. When the Israeli prime minister travels to Washington each year, he has conveyed a message of closeness and intimacy, unlike the 4 years since his last visit to the White House, something that does not go unnoticed by friends and foes alike.

Netanyahu is expected to address a special joint session of Congress and is expected to meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House, although this has not yet been confirmed. A meeting is also expected to be arranged with the next US president-elect, Donald Trump. When Netanyahu addressed Congress in 2015, then-President Barack Obama was angry that Netanyahu spoke out before Congress against the Iran nuclear deal he had negotiated and refused to meet with him.

Meanwhile, several organizations are calling for a national demonstration to welcome the Zionist president and surround the US Congress. They want to side with the Palestinian people and demand an end to the genocide.

Since Netanyahu accepted an invitation last month from bipartisan leaders in the US Congress, there has been a public debate in Israel about whether or not he should accept the invitation, before it was known whether he would receive an invitation to meet Biden. Arguments against Netanyahu’s acceptance include that such a visit, initiated by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, was not something the White House would like and would only highlight partisan divisions over Israel. It has emerged that experts estimate that between the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19, there will be those who accuse Netanyahu of meddling in US politics, which could strain his relationship with Biden.

The last time Netanyahu was in the White House was in September 2020. Donald Trump was president and the occasion was the signing of the so-called Abraham Accords. Both Trump and Netanyahu lost the elections shortly afterwards: Trump in November 2020 and Netanyahu in March 2021.

In 2023, when Biden belatedly invited Netanyahu, signaling his disapproval of the prime minister’s policies, the president was politically strong, having emerged victorious in the midterm elections when a prediction of Republican control of both houses of Congress failed to materialize. On the other hand, Netanyahu, who faced unprecedented popular opposition to his judicial reform plan, was politically weak.

Now the dynamics have changed. Both leaders are weak and both are facing strong calls to step aside: Biden from within his own party and Netanyahu from a street of increasingly loud protests. At the same time, Trump, with his superhero image, cannot go unnoticed by Netanyahu. And precisely because both leaders are politically weak, experts believe that a meeting in the White House could benefit both:

Netanyahu will try to assert his capabilities as a statesman and Biden will try to demonstrate his leadership qualities and mental acuity.

Source: Radio Havana Cuba (RHC) / Resumen Latinoamericano-English

Alfredo Garcia Almeida is a journalist, international analyst and contributor from Mérida, Yucatán.