President Isaac Herzog met with the President of the United States of America, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., in the Oval Office, at the White House, today (Wednesday, 26 October 2022).
President Isaac Herzog: “Thank you, Mr. President. I want to thank you wholeheartedly for your hospitality, for inviting me here. It’s an expression of true friendship, and we had the enormous pleasure of hosting you at the President’s home and in Israel at large a few weeks ago. It was a true moment of pleasure for the people of Israel and I also think it was one hell of a pleasure for you too. You are a true friend of Israel, Mr. President. The United States is our closest, strongest, historical ally, and I am very proud to come here as the head of state of the State of Israel to express my feelings of friendship and bonding and the unbreakable bond between our nations.
“You know, Mr. President, today marks forty days to the killing of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian woman who protested and today the Iranian regime is crushing thousands of Iranian citizens, men, young men, women, who are demonstrating and simply pleading to have their own liberties. And this is an example of the way Iran is working, crushing its own citizens, moving towards nuclear weapons, and supplying lethal weapons that are killing innocent citizens in Ukraine. And I think the Iranian challenge will be a major challenge, which we will be discussing.
“I want to thank you, Mr. President, and the Administration for moving forward and carving the deal between Israel and Lebanon on the maritime border, and we appreciate the effort and of course bringing it to fruition tomorrow.
“We will also be discussing the inclusion and integration of Israel in the region, in the Middle East, as we see more and more nations coming on board and cooperating with Israel in so many fields. For one item that you and I will participate together with leaders from all over the world in COP27 in Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt a few weeks down the road, I think the climate challenge can serve as a common denominator for so many nations and also between Israel and the United States.
“And finally, Mr. President, you know we have elections in Israel and you are having midterm elections in the United States, but one thing is clear, and I think this visit epitomizes it best, is that our friendship, our strong bond, transcends all political differences and opinions and parties, and I hope that together we can continue to work towards the wellbeing of the State of Israel, the United States, and the world at large. Thank you very much.”
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.: “Mr. President, welcome. It’s great to have you here in the Oval Office, and I want to thank you for the hospitality you showed me when I was in Israel. Thank you again for the honor you showed me. I was bragging to the President, I have been presented by the President the Israeli Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is on the table behind you over there, I’m very proud of it, and thank you for that honor.
“Tomorrow Israel and Lebanon are going to sign an agreement to establish a permanent maritime boundary between the two countries. I think it’s an extraordinary breakthrough. It took a lot of courage for you to step up and step into it. It took some real guts, and I think it took principled and persistent diplomacy to get it done and I compliment you and I compliment the government. This agreement is going to allow the development of energy fields for both countries and is going to create new hope and economic opportunities for the people of Lebanon, enhance the stability and security of the people of Israel. As you probably know, I have been working on this since I was Vice President of the United States, and I really compliment you.
“We’re also going to discuss the ironclad commitment, and I’ve said this 5,000 times in my career, the ironclad commitment the United States has to Israel based on our principles, our ideals, our values. They’re the same values. I have often said, Mr. President, if there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one. I’ve told you before, my dad was a righteous Christian who used to sit for dinner to have a conversation and incidentally eat, and I remember when I was a teenager, my dad talking about how we should have done so much more. Why didn’t we bomb the railroad tracks in World War Two? So it’s a deep shared concern. And so we have values and interests, and I hope we get to talk about those a little bit today, and I think our interests are pretty consistent around the world and in the region. Thank you for being here.”
Following his meeting with President Biden at the White House, President Herzog made the following statement:
“I have just completed a very detailed, in-depth discussion with the President of the United States, Joe Biden, a true friend of Israel, as part of the unique relationship, the unbreakable bond, the historic relations between Israel and the United States. We had an open and frank discussion on many issues. I thanked the President for the U.S. leadership in carving out the Lebanon maritime border agreement, which will be signed tomorrow.
“We discussed mainly the issue of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, Iran’s crushing of its own citizens in a brutal, vicious, and malicious way, and Iran’s activities supplying armaments that are killing innocent Ukrainian civilians.
“We discussed the integration and inclusion of Israel in the region and the potential of doing so many great things with our neighbors in the various Arab states around us, as reflected in the energies that have followed the Abraham Accords, as well as our dialogue with our Palestinian neighbors.
“We discussed the issue of climate change, as we will both participate in the COP27 summit, and a discussion of the potential cooperation between Israel, the region, and the United States on such issues.
“I want to thank the President for his warmth, for his friendship, for being such an ally of the State of Israel and the great friendship between Israel and the United States at large, which goes beyond any partisan differences. We have always believed in the bipartisan relationship.
“Finally, we have elections both in Israel and in the United States. The mere fact of my own visit as the head of state, the State of Israel, which is above the political realm, is an expression of the great friendship between Israel and the United States, which transcends all political differences.
“We discussed the issue of antisemitism. It’s a major issue, which we see as a main challenge on various frontiers all over the world. Clearly, as the nation-state of the Jewish People we care for our brothers and sisters all over the world. Thank you very much.”