Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the U.S. on Monday for a key visit that might set the course for his country's genocidal war on Gaza.
During the visit, Netanyahu will meet U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday, a U.S. official has confirmed.
His visit comes just after Biden dropped out of the presidential race and has been battling COVID-19 since last Wednesday.
Biden will return to Washington on Tuesday from his beach house in Delaware.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.
Biden and Netanyahu are expected to discuss ways to reach a cease-fire deal between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in Gaza, as well as Iran and other topics.
It will be Biden's first meeting with a foreign leader since he opted not to run for re-election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor as the Democratic presidential nominee.
Harris is to meet Netanyahu this week separate from Biden's meeting.
A Harris aide said she will stress to Netanyahu that it is time for the Gaza conflict to end in a way where "Israel is secure, all hostages are released, the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can enjoy their right to dignity, freedom, and self-determination."
US officials have also criticized the toll that Israel's war in Gaza has had on Palestinian civilians. But experts interviewed by AFP said American support for Israel remains steadfast, as suggested by words of the U.S. invitation for Netanyahu to "highlight America's solidarity with Israel."
Across United States campuses and on the Democrats' left wing, calls to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza have reached unprecedented levels. Such appeals have not, however, convinced establishment Democrats to apply significant pressure to bring the war to an end, the analysts told AFP.
Netanyahu was invited by both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.
Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli national security adviser, told AFP that the idea came from Republicans, and "Biden and the Democrats had to go along with it."
Michael Horowitz, a geopolitical analyst for Le Beck International, a Middle East-based security consultancy, said the visit will force Democrats "to find a complicated balance" between opposition to war casualties and historic support for Israel.
Mairav Zonzsein, an International Crisis Group analyst, said Netanyahu's invitation despite popular protests "shows that there's a lot of gaps and contradictions in the American positioning on the war in Gaza right now."
"There's a lot of rhetoric, there's been a lot of pushback throughout this war on the humanitarian issue," said Zonzsein, citing the stalling of arms shipments and sanctions on Israeli settlers, which the academic says are unprecedented.
But, she added, it would take more to change the diplomatic status quo between the two countries.
"I don't think you can say there's a crisis in the U.S.-Israeli relationship because that's something that is so ingrained in both American and Israeli politics".
Freilich had a similar view. "I wouldn't say at the moment there's a crisis, but there's a lot of tension there, and the next few months will have an important impact on where it goes."
