The Most Important Trip of the Israeli President to the United States
The Israeli President Isaac Herzog has headed to the United States to conduct one of the most important official visits by a president of this state to the U.S. He will be welcomed in Washington by his brother, who is the ambassador of his government in the United States.
Herzog is heading to Washington at a time when the most crucial issue for Joe Biden, the President of the United States, and his foreign policy team is the current elections in the occupied territories. The significance of Yair Lapid’s victory and preventing Benjamin Netanyahu from returning to power has influenced many decisions and plans of Biden’s team.
In line with a familiar process in all parliamentary democracies, in the structure of the Israeli government, it is the president who is tasked with forming the government after elections, assigning this duty to an individual based on election results and an evaluation of the composition of Knesset seats. Herzog had previously spoken in semi-official and key discussions with some key Knesset members about his commitment to preventing a crisis following the elections and prolonging the process of forming a government.
The visit of the Israeli President to the United States is taking place while Biden’s foreign policy team, led by its powerful and distinctive figure, is taking the final steps towards an agreement between Lebanon and Israel over maritime borders and gas extraction from these areas. Biden and his foreign policy team must manage the internal political tensions in the occupied territories in the week leading up to the elections, overshadowed by the electoral conditions and Lapid’s relatively critical situation in the polls.