Netanyahu said to bar ministers from meeting US officials until Biden invites him

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed all cabinet ministers to avoid traveling to the United States, and to avoid meeting US government officials if they do, until he is invited to the White House by US President Joe Biden, a report said Tuesday.

The report by Channel 12 news said that Netanyahu is angry he has not been invited yet and believes any minister meeting American government officials would underline that the premier himself has not attended such a meeting.

Two and a half months after forming his hard-right government, not only has Netanyahu not been invited to the US, there aren’t even initial talks about coordinating such a visit. The report noted that former premier Naftali Bennett, who entered office in June 2021, visited the White House in August of that year.

The Biden administration has expressed uneasiness with several of the new Israeli government’s policies, including its plan to radically overhaul the justice system, its approval of settler homes and its intention to legalize unrecognized settler outposts.

“As long as I don’t visit there, nobody does,” Netanyahu was quoted as telling his ministers.

The report, which cited an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter, said the only exception was Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a former ambassador to the US, who acts as a kind of emissary for Netanyahu on sensitive matters.

The network claimed that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who was visiting the US this week, had been told not to meet government officials even before the White House said no such meetings would be held due to Smotrich’s recent remark — later walked back — that Israel should “wipe out” the Palestinian town of Huwara.

The report added that talks on arranging a meeting by Netanyahu to the United Arab Emirates have broken down, with Abu Dhabi asking for the visit to be held after the upcoming holy Muslim month of Ramadan so as to not be embarrassed by the timing if the security situation deteriorates, as it has during Ramadan in the past few years.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu is making do with visiting several European countries. He traveled last week to Italy, was set to take off Wednesday for Germany, and is expected to visit Britain next week.

Netanyahu’s office didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment by The Times of Israel.

The premier’s spokesperson Yonatan Urich reportedly expressed displeasure with the report by removing Yaron Avraham, the journalist who reported the story, from the official WhatsApp group for Likud party statements.