Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to meet US President Joe Biden
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will visit the White House on June 28 to meet with US President Joe Biden.
Rivlin’s visit comes before the July conclusion of his seven-year tenure and the inauguration of Israel’s new president, Isaac Herzog, who won in elections marking the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure.
Netanyahu’s presidency was contentious in Washington and his departure will reduce the temperature and increase trust and confidence in the US-Israeli relationship.
Despite this change, realities in the Middle East regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict pose the biggest threat to the prospect of better relations between the US and an Israeli administration without Netanyahu. Israeli politics are turbulent, and Netanyahu will become opposition leader where he will preside over Israel’s largest and most coherent political party with many still-loyal followers. At the same time, a confrontation over the Palestinian issue between Biden’s administration and Israel’s new government remains a possibility. Indeed, the current Israeli-Palestinian crisis — and the possibility of an even more hard-line prime minister — should serve as a reminder to the administration that, although the Middle East is not the immediate priority of Biden’s administration, he may have to address the issue if the situation deteriorates again.
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