Biden Administration officials are planning to roll out the red carpet next week when Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, chair of the center-left Yesh Atid party, arrives in Washington DC.
Lapid is set to meet with senior Biden Administration officials at the White House and State Department, according to Axios journalist Barak Ravid, who reported that Lapid is also scheduled to meet with lawmakers in the US House of Representatives and the Senate.
In short, all the Washington power brokers on the left side of the aisle.
One of the issues on the agenda is the effort to achieve a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh is demanding US assistance in building a civilian nuclear reactor that would include uranium enrichment, in exchange for joining the expanding Middle Eastern circle of peace within the framework of the Abraham Accords.
Lapid – who has expressed his public opposition to such a move – has no authority to approve or nix such a deal and does not have enough mandates in the Knesset to vote down any decision made by the current government.
Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still being snubbed by the leftist Biden Administration, which strongly opposed the ascension of Israel’s right-wing government.
Israel’s prime minister has still not been invited by President Joe Biden for a visit at the White House since taking office in December 2022 for his sixth term as leader of the Jewish State.
According to a report by Ravid last week published by Walla! News, talks are taking place between the Prime Minister’s Office and the White House to determine a date for such a meeting.
