Israeli officials to visit US, prepare for Biden-Bennett meeting

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s foreign policy advisers will travel to Washington next week to begin preparations for a planned meeting between Bennett and President Joe Biden, Barak Ravid of Axios reported on Monday.

The meeting is expected to take place later in August, Israeli officials say.

These will be the first face-to-face meetings between advisers to the two leaders since Bennett took office in June. All previous discussions were held over the phone or by video conference.

Bennett’s foreign policy adviser and point person for relations with the White House, Shimrit Meir, will arrive in Washington on Monday along with Eyal Hulata, Bennett’s new national security adviser and a former official in the Mossad spy agency, according to Axios.

Israeli officials say the two are expected to meet with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Biden’s top Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk.

The meetings are meant for introduction as well as setting a final date for the first Oval Office meeting between Biden and Bennett. Israeli officials say the meeting could take place during the second half of August.

Ravid noted that the Biden administration is making significant efforts to help stabilize the new Israeli government. For example, the administration has elected to delay the reopening of the US consulate in Jerusalem until after Bennett’s government manages to pass a budget.

A recent report said the US had conveyed a message to Israel that it will not bother the new government on the Palestinian Arab issue until a budget is passed.

The Biden administration has several times expressed support for the “two-state solution” as the only solution for the longstanding Israel-PA conflict.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently asserted that the two-state solution is the only way to provide hope to Israelis and Palestinian Arabs that they can live “with equal measures of security, of peace and dignity.”