Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in the United States to address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, during a moment of heightened uncertainty in American politics after President Biden announced he would end his reelection campaign.
Over his decades in power, Netanyahu has made at least two dozen official trips to the United States, meeting and sometimes clashing with American officials.
Despite Israel’s status as a key U.S. ally — or, perhaps, because of it — Netanyahu has boldly and openly challenged multiple U.S. presidents.
July 1996: ‘Who’s the … superpower here?’
President Bill Clinton held his first official meeting with Netanyahu in Washington in July 1996. After that discussion, in which the Israeli prime minister reportedly lectured his U.S. counterpart on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, an exasperated Clinton remarked privately to his aides, “Who the f— does he think he is? Who’s the f—ing superpower here?” according to a memoir by veteran U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller.
March 2010: ‘The kind of step that undermines the trust we need’
Just hours after then-Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Israel to reaffirm support for Washington’s closest regional ally, the Israeli government announced plans for 1,600 new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem. This awkwardly timed announcement came just a day after Israel and the Palestinians agreed to U.S.-mediated, indirect peace negotiations. In response, Biden left Netanyahu waiting for an hour and a half before dinner as his team crafted a statement. Released during the meal, Biden’s statement was notably strong for one directed at a close ally. He used the word “condemn” and stated that the announcement’s “substance and timing” represented “precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.”
May 2011: Netanyahu ‘lectures’ Obama
On May 19, 2011, President Barack Obama called for a two-state solution with borders based on the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed swaps. The next day, after a closed-door discussion at the White House, Netanyahu publicly rebuffed Obama, declaring that a peace based on “illusions” would crash on the “rocks of Middle Eastern reality” and that Israel could not return to the “indefensible” 1967 borders. Obama found Netanyahu’s tone condescending and dismissive, The Washington Post reported, and he reportedly told an aide that Netanyahu had “peed on my leg.”
Eight years later, during a reelection campaign, Netanyahu referenced that encounter, sharing a clip from the PBS Frontline documentary “Netanyahu at War.” The clip featured a narrator stating, “This time, Bibi Netanyahu would lecture Barack Obama, taking a hard line on the peace process.” Netanyahu posted the video on Facebook in 2019, writing, “In the face of all pressure, I will protect our country.”
March 2015: Netanyahu addresses Congress
The relationship between Netanyahu and the Obama administration took a further hit when the Israeli prime minister addressed a joint meeting of the Republican-led Congress at the invitation of a Republican speaker, without consulting the White House in advance. From the podium, Netanyahu spoke on Iran’s nuclear program — in what some White House officials saw as an attempt to undermine the U.S. president and U.S. negotiations with Tehran. Washington had been for several years negotiating a comprehensive deal to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
November 2020: ‘Bibi could have stayed quiet’
President Donald Trump and Netanyahu enjoyed a strong, loyal and personal alliance during Trump’s term.
But the relationship quickly soured after Trump lost the election to Biden in 2020 and the former accused Netanyahu of too quickly congratulating his opponent. “The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with. … Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake,” Trump later told Axios journalist Barak Ravid. “I haven’t spoken to him since,” the outlet quoted Trump as saying in late 2021. “F— him.”
But Ravid this month reported that Netanyahu and his team have been working to win Trump back.
March 2024: ‘A “come to Jesus” meeting’
Biden, a staunch supporter of Israel, has known Netanyahu for four decades, maintaining a long but complex friendship. “Bibi, I love you. I don’t agree with a damn thing you say,” Biden once wrote on a photograph of the two, which he said Netanyahu has kept on his desk.
The war in Israel that broke out in October has highlighted the complexity of their relationship. Biden has tried to balance support for Israel with pressure from some Democrats to stop arming Israel because of the rising civilian toll in Gaza.
In a hot mic moment, Biden was recorded telling politicians, “I told him, Bibi … you and I are going to have a ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.” When alerted to the hot mic, Biden responded, “Good, that’s good.”
Netanyahu later commented, “If it means having a heart-to-heart conversation, we’ve had that plenty of times over the 40 years I’ve known Joe Biden and during the 12 or 13 conversations since the war began.”
June 2024: ‘Withholding weapons and ammunitions’
The United States is by far the largest arms supplier to Israel — including more than $6.5 billion in security assistance to Israel since Oct. 7.
In June, Netanyahu claimed the Biden administration was “withholding weapons and ammunitions” — a claim that the White House rejected. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded bluntly in a news conference: “We genuinely do not know what he is talking about.”
Amid pressure, the Biden administration in May suspended the delivery to Israel of two types of large weapons — 2,000 pound bombs and 500-pound bombs. But it resumed a shipment of 500-pound bombs by July.
As he departed for Washington on Monday, Netanyahu said his trip would be an opportunity to thank Biden “for the things he did for Israel in the war and during his long and distinguished career in public service.”
