Biden will meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations next week, but NOT at the White House after the Israeli president announced an Oval Office meeting: report

A new report says President Joe Biden will meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations next week after pushing back on the Israeli prime minister’s efforts to secure an Oval Office meeting.

The less formal one-on-one meeting comes amid efforts by thousands of Israeli academics and artists to urge Biden and the U.N. secretary general to shun Natanyahu over his controversial justice reform.

But Biden also faces crosscurrents at home, where Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, are represented I accused him Given ongoing tensions and Netanyahu’s coalition with right-wing parties, allowing a growing distance between the historical allies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed for an Oval Office meeting with Biden on his trip to the United States. Instead, he gets a meeting on the “sidelines” of the UN General Assembly in New York, Axios reported

The decision to meet Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN – where the president traditionally meets several heads of state and government – follows an internal debate and a pressure campaign by Israelis. Axios reported.

But the White House has told Netanyahu that he will arrange a meeting at the White House later this year Times of Israel reported.

Biden said Netanyahu, who returned to power nine months ago, was heading an “extreme” Israeli government.

Officials said Netanyahu pushed Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Micahel Herzog, into the meeting and sought a confab in the Oval Office, where the men had previously met, according to the report.

The meeting for next week’s UNGA meetings has not been officially confirmed.

With no White House meeting on his agenda, Netanyahu will fly to Silicon Valley in California before traveling to New York.

Israel’s Supreme Court this week heard its first challenge to Netanyahu’s judicial reforms, which critics say would weaken the top court and reduce checks on Netanyahu’s executive power.

The White House’s decision comes amid deep divisions over policy in Israel. Here, Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government’s plans to reform the justice system and support the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, Monday, September 11, 2023.

The UN meetings come days after Israel’s Supreme Court met during a session with all of Israel’s Supreme Court judges for the first time in the country’s history to consider the legality of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform

The move by his right-wing government, which includes ultra-nationalist factions, has sparked street protests and angry clashes.

Biden’s conversation with Netanyahu comes as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said his country would use $6 billion in released funds “wherever we need them” – rejecting a limit in negotiations with the U.S. that would Money restricted to “humanitarian purposes”.

Raisi’s comments in a conversation with NBC The news from Tehran comes a day after the Biden administration announced an extraordinary deal that would release five imprisoned Americans, swapping them for Iranian prisoners in the United States while unblocking funding for Tehran.

In the interview, Raisi told broadcaster Lester Holt that the needs of the Iranian people were determined “by the Iranian government” after being asked specifically whether this was for humanitarian purposes, including food, in a country hit by crippling inflation and medicines, would serve amid economic sanctions.

The government said the funds would be monitored to ensure they were used only for humanitarian purposes.