President Joe Biden hosted his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog in Washington on Tuesday, a day after inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the US amid strains between the traditional allies over the hardline policies of Israel’s new government.
Biden’s decision to invite Herzog, whose powers are largely ceremonial, ahead of Netanyahu has been widely interpreted in Israel as a sign of US concerns about his far-right government’s agenda, which includes a bitterly contested judicial overhaul and an acceleration of settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
Herzog — who also met secretary of state Antony Blinken and will on Wednesday meet vice-president Kamala Harris and address a joint session of Congress — insisted ahead of his visit that the US-Israeli relationship was “above and beyond any and all disagreements”.