Government ministers who expressed interest in traveling to the United States were instructed by the Prime Minister not to travel to Washington, as was revealed today (Tuesday) on the evening edition of News 12. The instruction comes following the fact that Netanyahu himself was not invited to the White House and this is his way of “protesting” this fact.
“The arrival of any of the ministers will emphasize his lack of arrival”
Sources familiar with the matter told News 12 that “the arrival of any of the ministers will emphasize his non-arrival, so this is the directive passed to them on behalf of Netanyahu, except for Ron Dermer who serves as a kind of messenger on his behalf.” According to Netanyahu’s directive, if one of the ministers flies in any case, he is prohibited from meeting with American government officials. This is similar to what happened during Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s visit to the United States.
Minister Smotrich in his meeting with the leaders of the Bundes in Washington Photo: Spokesperson for Minister Smotrich
“There have been talks in recent weeks regarding Netanyahu’s visit to the Emirates”
The officials also referred to the Prime Minister’s visit to the United Arab Emirates that was supposed to take place in recent weeks, “There were talks in recent weeks regarding Netanyahu’s visit to the Emirates, there was even a specific date that was discussed, but the visit again did not match and did not materialize, and this is because the Emirates asked to wait until after a month Ramadan if not the timing of the visit will embarrass them.”
The Biden administration advised Netanyahu to “press the brakes”
It will be recalled that the Biden administration expressed reservations about the moves promoted by the Israeli government, chief among them the legal reform. For example, during an interview about a month ago, Biden said that Israeli democracy must be based on “a system of checks and balances, on an independent judicial system.”
In addition to this, the United States Ambassador to Israel, Thomas Neides, said about two weeks ago in an interview with the podcast of the former adviser to the President of the United States, David Axelrod on the CNN network, that the Biden administration advised Netanyahu to “press the brakes” in regards to reforming the justice system.