Jake Sullivan expects Netanyahu to play nice while in Washington

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Friday he does not anticipate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attack the Biden administration when he delivers an address to a joint session of Congress next week.

Sullivan said at the Aspen Security Forum that he received a “broad preview” of Netanyahu’s speech while meeting with Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi and Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer in Washington last week.

“They said he’s intending to reinforce a set of themes and arguments that are not at odds or in contradiction to our policy, American policy,” Sullivan said. “But they’re gonna keep working that speech till the very last minute, just like we do on our side.”

While Sullivan said he probably won’t receive a copy of Netanyahu’s speech before it’s delivered, he does expect that Netanyahu will tell Biden “in pretty specific terms what he intends to say.”

The last time Netanyahu addressed Congress in 2015, he used the platform to slam the Obama administration for its efforts to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal. The speech infuriated Obama officials and House Democrats , prompting then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to call it an “insult to the intelligence of the United States.”

Netanyahu has publicly clashed with the Biden administration in recent weeks, releasing a video in which he criticized President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for withholding weapons shipments to Israel. The outburst puzzled Biden officials and prompted White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre to bluntly say: “We genuinely don’t know what he is talking about.”

Despite the recent spat, Sullivan said he expects Netanyahu to strike a different tone this time around.

“Our expectation is that his speech will be one that doesn't look like 2015,” he said. “It looks like what it should in the circumstances of today, and that is how the U.S. and Israel are trying together to face down the terrorist threat to coordinate together on the regional challenges that both of our countries are facing.”

“Whether that happens or not, I’ll stay tuned,” Sullivan added.

When he discussed the status of the cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas earlier in the event, Sullivan admitted that he has “learned the hard way never to use the word optimism in the same sentence as the Middle East.”

Still, Sullivan said that he thinks the U.S. government will manage to broker the cease-fire agreement.

“We’re not going to rest until we have this thing in place, and sooner rather than later,” Sullivan said.