Biden expected to take tougher tone with Netanyahu in high-stakes meeting

President Joe Biden is expected to exert more pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday in an attempt to secure an elusive deal to bring a cease-fire to Gaza — and help shape his political legacy and the campaign he just left.

Freed of the political shackles of having to seek reelection, Biden will look to take a tougher tone with Netanyahu — with whom he has frequently clashed — to reach an agreement with Hamas to free the group’s hostages and end the fighting that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, according to three administration officials granted anonymity because they are not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

“I'll be working very closely with the Israelis and with the Palestinians to try to work out how we can get the Gaza war to end and the Middle East peace and get all those hostages home,” Biden said in a call to campaign staffers Monday. “I think we're on the verge of being able to do that.”

Netanyahu’s visit has been fraught since Republican lawmakers extended the invitation more than a month ago, with dozens of congressional Democrats skipping his speech before a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday. But now the Israeli leader has arrived in a capital in tumult.

Reflecting Washington’s changing power dynamics, Biden’s meeting with Netanyahu will not be the only one scrutinized: Just as many eyes will be on Vice President Kamala Harris, who will hold a separate meeting with the prime minister. Biden and Netanyahu will meet Thursday afternoon and then visit with families of Americans held hostage; Harris is slated to meet with the Israeli leader later that day.

Netanyahu will also meet with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, the former president said. The announcement triggered more anger in the West Wing toward the prime minister, according to the three officials not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

For Biden, the meeting is a return to center stage after a week of isolation in Delaware, where he recovered from Covid and ceded his campaign to Harris. Before ending his reelection bid Sunday, Biden frequently used his foreign policy credentials as justification to keep running, touting his restoration of U.S. alliances and his efforts to bring the Israel-Hamas war to a close.

Beyond pushing for a cease-fire, aides said, Biden plans to discuss with Netanyahu Israel’s use of large-scale bombs in Gaza, as well as its response to recent attacks from the Houthis, an Iran-backed militant group in Yemen. Aides and Democrats predicted that Biden, frustrated with Netanyahu and freed by some electoral constraints, will take his toughest approach yet with the prime minister.

“I hope President Biden will more publicly express his concerns,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “You’ve had this what I call ‘telephone diplomacy’ and occasional leaks from the White House about how frustrated the president is. But in my view, if you want to have an impact, you should say these things out loud.”

A fourth senior U.S. official said Thursday that the deal was in the “closing stages” but acknowledged that some significant hurdles remained. Netanyahu, in his address to Congress, vowed that Israel would achieve “total victory” in the war.

More than 1,100 people were killed during the Hamas attacks last October, and another 250 were taken hostage. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and a humanitarian crisis has gripped the enclave, prompting widespread protests in Israel and on U.S. college campuses.

Rifts have deepened between Biden and Netanyahu since the start of the war, with Biden’s aides increasingly believing that the Israeli leader is prolonging the conflict to stay in power — and that he would prefer Trump return to the White House. The war created a thorny political dilemma for Biden, who for the most part has publicly supported Netanyahu, even while privately trying to reign in the Israeli leader’s war efforts.

But that has caused Biden to take heat from some members of his own party for not protecting Palestinian civilians — and led to an erosion of support from key members of his electoral base, including progressives, young voters and voters of color.

Now that dynamic applies to Harris, who faces the same political headwinds. National security officials stressed that Harris’ role this week will be secondary; Biden is still president and sees progress in the Middle East as part of his legacy.

And aides are quick to note that Harris has been careful not to contradict Biden, even as she has at times pushed ahead of the administration’s messaging on the Israel-Gaza conflict. The vice president has at times advocated forcefully, and ahead of other Biden officials, for limiting civilian casualties.

But while any shifts will be modest, aides previewed, she may use the moment to create a slight separation with Biden, and more forcefully focus on addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“It’s still an important election issue, and the vice president may have a little wiggle room to craft her own approach,” said Basil Smikle, a longtime Democratic strategist. “I suspect after the convention, her own vision will become more clear and attract scrutiny from the right and left.”

Harris’ advisers feel she is less associated with the war and is perceived as a stronger advocate of securing a cease-fire in Gaza to protect civilians. And after a surge of Democratic enthusiasm that accompanied her rise to the top of the ticket, her campaign released a memo Wednesday morning that suggests that she has more strength with young voters and voters of color and, in turn, could eventually give her more political capital to push Netanyahu.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu would be wise to get a cease-fire deal done sooner rather than later, and certainly while Joe Biden is still president. Kamala Harris has been — and as president would be — able to strike a more nuanced stance on Israel,” said Mark Hannah of the Institute for Global Affairs. “Though a staunch advocate for Israel’s security, she would certainly be more forceful in her expressions of compassion for the plight of Palestinians — and expressions of presidents and presidential candidates quickly become policy.”

But Netanyahu has frequently spurned the president’s advice, and West Wing aides have feared that he would use the visit — and his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday — to claim that Biden was insufficiently supportive of Israel’s war effort. Netanyahu has used speeches to Congress for his political purposes before, infuriating former President Barack Obama’s White House when he addressed a joint session in 2015 to attack that administration’s proposed Iran nuclear deal.

That 2015 speech was not received well by progressive Democrats, who have only grown more critical of Netanyahu since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war. Democrats have chastised the Israeli prime minister for disregarding humanitarian concerns in Gaza and empowering a far-right government in Israel, and more than a dozen lawmakers have said they will skip his speech.

There is a widely held expectation of significant Gaza-related protests at the Democratic convention in Chicago next month. Cease-fire talks have broken off multiple times in recent months, though U.S. officials expressed renewed optimism this month.

“President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu will focus on the cease-fire and hostage deal,” said John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, “including working together and with partners to get this deal across the finish line.”

Matt Berg contributed to this report.