Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid plans to visit Washington

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid will travel to Washington, D.C., next week, according to Israeli media.

The focus of his trip will be “strengthening the Israel-U.S. strategic relationship, bringing the hostages back home, and Israel’s role in the region,” an unnamed person from Lapid’s office told the Times of Israel on Tuesday.

Lapid is a political rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he has been critical of for his handling of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack and Israel’s subsequent military response in Gaza.

Earlier this week, Lapid said holding elections before the end of the war “is not ideal,” but he stressed that it’s necessary “because this government won’t fix the budget, won’t fix the [Haredi] draft, and, especially, won’t bring home the hostages. And you know what? It also won’t win the war because we won’t have the world with us and won’t have the people of Israel [fully united].”

“This is an existential moment” for Israel, he added. “The people who were supposed to keep our children safe failed to do so. … The soul of the state is bleeding.”

Lapid said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) call for new Israeli elections in mid-April is evidence that Netanyahu is “losing Israel’s biggest supporters in the U.S.” and is “causing significant damage to the national effort to win the war and maintain Israel’s security.”

On Monday, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken met virtually with Israeli officials, including national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minster Ron Dermer, to discuss Israel’s intended operations in Rafah. More than a million Palestinian civilians are sheltering in Rafah due to the conflict, and Israel has yet to detail publicly its plans to keep them safe in its operations.

President Joe Biden has remained supportive of Israel’s war against Hamas even as he has gotten more critical of Israel’s conduct. The U.S. administration continues to provide weapons to Israel. Yet Biden and Netanyahu’s rift has been on display throughout the war.

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The U.S. president called a ground operation into Rafah a “red line” for him, though he maintained he wouldn’t leave Israel defenseless. Following his State of the Union address to Congress last month, Biden said he was hoping to have a “come to Jesus” conversation with Netanyahu.

Benny Gantz, a top member of Israel’s war cabinet, traveled to Washington in early March for meetings with U.S. officials, including Blinken, Sullivan, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Netanyahu was reportedly unhappy with Gantz’s trip.