Even the first anniversary of Hamas‘s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel wasn’t an occasion for President Joe Biden to thaw relations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Biden and Netanyahu have not spoken since Aug. 21. Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has continued to expand, now including Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel, over the weekend, conducted strikes in southern Beirut, Lebanon, and northern Gaza.
Biden called Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday, but not Netanyahu.
“What you saw the president do is honor and commemorate lives that were lost,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday in defense of the decision. “The president called President Herzog because he believed it was [the] appropriate person for the president to call to express his condolences. It was a meaningful and important conversation, and so that’s what they spoke about. It was focused on commemorating this incredibly sad day.”
With Netanyahu critics blaming the prime minister for complicating a possible Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal and Biden critics contending the president no longer has the political capital to influence Netanyahu or conflict, Jean-Pierre underscored there would be a call between the pair “shortly.”
“They have a decadeslong relationship, and in those conversations that they do have, it’s very honest, it’s very frank, and that will continue,” she said. “We believe the best chance at getting these hostages home is through a ceasefire deal. That’s what the president is directing his team to continue to work on, and that’s going to be our focus.”
The press secretary added that Biden and Netanyahu have “spoken more than a dozen times in the past year, and they’ve seen each other.”
“The president’s team has been in touch regularly, regularly, practically daily, with the Israeli government,” she said. “So we’ve been in close communication and close contact, and that continues.”
Last week, during Biden’s first appearance in the White House briefing room, the president urged Netanyahu to “remember” that “no administration has helped Israel more than [his].”
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“What I know is the plan that I put together received the support of the U.N. Security Council and the vast majority of our allies around the world as a way to bring this to an end,” Biden said. “The Israelis have every right to respond to the vicious attacks on them not just from the Iranians but from the — everyone from Hezbollah to the Houthis to — anyway. But the fact is that they have to be very much more careful about dealing with civilian casualties.”
As Israelis held memorial services and demonstrations around their country one year from Oct. 7, Netanyahu described facing attacks from seven fronts. At the White House, Biden participated in a yahrzeit candle lighting ceremony. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, similarly planted a pomegranate memorial tree on the grounds of her residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory in honor of the victims.