Biden hails ‘friendship’ with Israel at 2024 event amid tension with Netanyahu

Speaking at a fundraiser hosted by a candidate for ambassador to Israel Biden expressed concern about the ‘situation in Israel’

President Joe Biden in Israel on July 13, 2022. Photo by Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz

By Jacob Kornbluh June 28, 2023

During a political fundraiser on Tuesday, President Joe Biden hailed the U.S.-Israel relationship and the countries’ shared values while expressing concern about Israel’s political turmoil and recent violence between Israeli Jews and Palestinians.

The president spoke at an event hosted by Michael and Susie Gelman, longtime Jewish communal leaders active in Democratic politics, in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Susie Gelman is the past chair of the Israel Policy Forum, a nonpartisan group founded in 1993 to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is on the list of candidates for U.S. ambassador to Israel.

“I know that there’s a great concern about the situation in Israel,” Biden said, without elaborating whether he was referencing the contentious proposal to overhaul the nation’s judiciary or the increased tension in the occupied West Bank. But he went on to speak of the “unbreakable bond” the U.S. has with Israel, one defined by “genuine friendship” and “shared democratic values.” Biden called himself an “incredibly strong supporter of the State of Israel.”

The remarks come as the president continues to snub Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his government’s judicial overhaul plan. In a break from tradition, Netanyahu hasn’t been invited to the White House since taking office six months ago. Israel and the Biden adminstration are also quietly tussling over talks with Iran and Netanyahu’s warming ties with China.

Gelman has also strongly criticized the judicial overhaul proposal and the appointments of right-wing extremists Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to senior cabinet positions.

At a second fundraiser event later in the evening, Biden also touted the new White House plan to counter antisemitism. “The rise of antisemitism in America is out of whack, way out of whack,” Biden said.

Jacob Kornbluh is the Forward’s senior political reporter. Follow him on Twitter @jacobkornbluh or email [email protected].

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO