2 months ago
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US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke directly on Wednesday as the two leaders seek to navigate past their fraught relationship toward a united front on Israel's likely counterattack to an Iranian missile barrage.
A visit to Washington DC planned for the previous day by Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was cancelled without explanation, underscoring rifts at home and abroad over Netanyahu's war aims.
Both Gallant and Biden have feuded with Netanyahu about Israel's conduct of a year-long military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack by Palestinian militants on Israel on October 7.
The US president telephoned Israel's President Isaac Herzog rather than Netanyahu to convey his condolences on the one-year anniversary of the assault which killed around 1,100 Israelis, most of them civilians.
The two leaders have not spoken since August and their lack of a working relationship has complicated efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, and after Iran's Oct. 1 attack on Israel with nearly 200 missiles, about how Israel should respond.
Biden has said Israel should not target Iran's nuclear sites and publicly counseled against hitting its oil facilities, though he maintained that the two allies were in constant coordination about the appropriate retaliation.
Biden's Vice President and candidate to succeed him Kamala Harris on Tuesday described Iran and the United States' main threat, while her opponent former President Donald Trump criticized Biden for not blessing an attack on nuclear sites.
