Netanyahu only symbolically in from the cold

US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met last week in New York to ease the months of tensions generated by the Netanyahu government's controversial judicial reforms.

Netanyahu had gone 265 days without meeting a US president until this meeting — the only longer "US cold shoulder" was experienced by then Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol in 1964 when he had to wait 341 days for a meeting with then US president Richard Nixon.

Unsurprisingly, on the Iran nuclear issue, where the two sides' positions are closest, Netanyahu echoed almost all of Biden's remarks, emphasizing that both countries would never allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Biden's distancing from Netanyahu has reasons. Netanyahu has close ties with the Republican Party, especially the Donald Trump family. As early as during the 2020 presidential election, there were ongoing disagreements between the Democratic Party with Netanyahu.