Meeting with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog at the White House on Tuesday, President Joe Biden pledged that Iran will never achieve nuclear weapons, noting that the US commitment to Israel’s security is "ironclad." The president also expressed his love for the State of Israel.
"As I told Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu yesterday, America’s commitment to Israel is firm and is ironclad, and we are committed as well to ensure that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, so we have a lot to talk about," said Biden. He also called the alliance between the two countries "simply unbreakable." Biden then addressed several joint achievements of the United States and Israel over the last year, including the maritime border agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the opening of a flight route over Saudi skies, and bringing together Israelis and Palestinians at the Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheikh summits.
The US president did not address in his opening remarks the judicial overhaul plan advanced by the Netanyahu government, which he and other American officials have criticized over the past few weeks. Opponents of the plan staged on Tuesday a "day of resistance," demonstrating across the country and in front of the American Embassy and blocking some train stations. For the moment, the talks between the sides championed by Herzog have not yielded a compromise. Pro-democracy demonstrators protested in Washington upon Herzog’s arrival.
Addressing recent tensions between Washington and Israeli government over the judicial overhaul and over Netanyahu’s settlement construction policies, Herzog said, "I was pleased to hear about your conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu in which you focused on our ironclad military and security cooperation, because there are some enemies of ours that sometimes mistake the fact that we may have some differences impacting our unbreakable bond."
