WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday held their first call in seven weeks, a conversation that comes as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon and considers how to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.
Vice President Kamala Harris also joined the 30-minute call, according to the White House.
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“It was direct, it was productive,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who added that the leaders discussed a long list of issues on the call, including Israel's deliberations on how it will respond to Iran.
Netanyahu's office, meantime, confirmed that the prime minister had recently spoken with former President Donald Trump. The Republican, who is in the midst of a close White House race against Harris, called Netanyahu last week and “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah,” according to Netanyahu's office.
The Biden-Netanyahu conversation comes at a moment of Biden's growing frustration with the prime minister and as the growing conflict in the Middle East is adding a layer of complexity to the American election next month.
Netanyahu has repeatedly looked past the Biden administration's calls for cease-fires. They would at least temporarily pause the fighting in Gaza, facilitate the release of some 100 hostages, who have been held by Hamas since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and stem the growing conflict between the Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The spreading conflict across the Mideast is looming over Harris in the final weeks of the White House campaign.
Some Arab-American voters in closely contested Michigan, and elsewhere, are threatening to withhold their support for the Democrat over their dissatisfaction with the administration's handling of the war in Gaza. Trump has increasingly criticized Harris and Biden for their foreign policy decisions as he makes his case to American voters to return him to the White House.
The Trump campaign said it should not be surprising that Netanyahu held talks with the former president.
"World leaders want to speak and meet with President Trump because they know he will soon be returning to the White House and will restore peace around the globe,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement about that call, which a Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., joined.
“As we know, it's one president at a time here,” Jean-Pierre when asked about Trump's call with Netanyahu.
Following the call with Netanyahu, Biden and top aides joined a call with American rabbis to belatedly mark the Jewish high holidays. They underscored the administration fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and its proxies.
“We’re also committed to holding Iran fully accountable for that attack, and we will continue to do so,” said Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa.
Biden told reporters last week that he did not know whether Netanyahu was holding up a Mideast peace deal in order to influence the outcome of the U.S. election.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None. None. And I think Bibi should remember that,” he said, referring to the Israeli leader by his nickname. “And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.”
Israel has been discussing how to respond to the Iranian missile barrage from Oct. 1, which the United States helped to fend off. Biden last week said he would not support a retaliatory Israeli strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.
Biden has urged Israel to consider alternatives to hitting Iran's oil sector. Such a strike could affect the global oil market and boost pump prices, developments that would not help Harris' efforts to win over the shrinking number of undecided voters.
Netanyahu’s other choices range from a largely symbolic strike — similar to how Israel responded after Iran launched missiles and attack drones in April at Israel.
“Our attack will be lethal, precise and above all surprising," Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a speech to Israeli troops on Wednesday. “They will not understand what happened and how it happened.”
Since the leaders' last call on Aug. 21, Israel has carried out a brazen sabotage and assassination campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the militant group has continued to fire missiles, rockets and drones at Israel.
Israel is now undertaking what it has described as limited ground operations across its northern border with Lebanon to dig out Hezbollah. Airstrikes killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and decimated its leadership.
Last month, thousands of explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, killing dozens of people and maiming thousands, including many civilians. Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack
The U.S. has maintained a stepped-up troop presence in the region, to defend Israel and American interests in the Middle East. Washington has grown increasingly vocal with Israeli officials about the need to be kept in the loop on their decision-making to ensure the protection of U.S. forces.
Gallant had been scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, but the Israelis postponed the visit, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
The Biden-Netanyahu call took place one day after disclosures from journalist Bob Woodward's new book, “War” that Biden has privately made his frustration and distrust of the Israeli leader known.
The president privately unleashed a profanity-laden tirade, calling him a “son of a bitch” and a “bad f——— guy,” according to the book.
Biden said he felt, in Woodward’s accounting, that Netanyahu “had been lying to him regularly,” with Netanyahu “continuing to say he was going to kill every last member of Hamas.” Woodward wrote, “Biden had told him that was impossible, threatening both privately and publicly to withhold offensive U.S. weapons shipment.”
The White House declined to comment.
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Goldenberg reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.