Herzog to Address Congress ‘in Near Future’

President Yitzchak Herzog on Tuesday said that he plans to visit the White House and address a joint session of the U.S. Congress “in the near future.”

He spoke during remarks via video to a gathering at the Israel Embassy in Washington celebrating Israel’s 75th anniversary.

President Joe Biden is planning to invite Herzog to the White House for a second time this summer, with the trip expected in July. Herzog met with Biden there last October under the previous Israeli government.

Biden has yet to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu since he took office in December. Biden announced to reporters in North Carolina in March that he has no plans to invite Netanyahu in the “near term,” while also calling on him to “walk away” from judicial reform.

“Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends,” said Netanyahu in response to Biden.

During his visit to Washington in October, Herzog was also invited to address a joint session of Congress in honor of Israel’s 75th anniversary.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued the invitation to Herzog in a joint letter, writing that the two countries share “an unbreakable bond rooted in common security, shared values and friendship.”