Prime Minister Netanyahu has called on the US

“President Biden has invited the Prime Minister to a meeting in the United States soon. The prime minister accepted the invitation,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Mr Biden has previously criticized the Netanyahu government’s controversial judicial reform bill, one of the most right-wing in the country’s history, and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In a telephone conversation between the two leaders on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu “informed the US president about the legislation to be passed before parliament next week and his intention to try it.” […] Gain broad public support […] The Prime Minister’s Office says the rest of the “legislative process”.

He insisted the interview was “long and heated”.

The judicial reform bill, seen by its critics as an authoritarian drift, has sparked massive protests in Israel for months.

Parliament last week approved a key measure of reform aimed at overturning the judiciary’s ruling on the “reasonableness” of government decisions in its first reading.

The announcement of the invitation came on the same day as Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who played a largely ceremonial role, said Mr. Will go to Washington invited by Biden.

“blank”

Since leading the government from December 2022, Mr. Netanyahu was not invited to the White House.

Why still go to Washington Mr. Asked why he did not invite Netanyahu, Mr. Biden told CNN in July that Mr. Herzog replied that he had “other connections”.

Mr. He pointed out that Netanyahu’s coalition is fueling tensions with the Palestinians by facilitating the establishment of settlements on Palestinian land.

This policy, associated with the weakening of the Palestinian Authority by Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. According to Biden, there was a “positive vacuum for extremism among the Palestinians.”

“It is one of the govt […] “Most of the extremists I saw in Israel,” he added.

According to the House spokesperson, Mr. With Herzog, Mr. Biden will emphasize “the importance of the democratic values ​​we share and the means to advance freedom, prosperity and security for Palestinians and Israelis. . .

Herzog is scheduled to address a full session of both houses of Congress during his visit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Binyamin Netanyahu, who won the November 2022 election with his allies from ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties, has been accused of corruption in a series of cases.