Israeli president to address Congress next month

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will address a joint meeting of Congress on July 19, congressional leaders announced Thursday.

Herzog is set to visit the U.S. next month to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel. He will be the second Israeli president to address Congress after his father, Chaim Herzog, in November 1987.

“This invitation to speak at a joint meeting of Congress is a testament to the decades of bipartisan and bicameral support for Israel that transcends party politics and I look forward to welcoming him to the Capitol,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

“The world is better off when America and Israel work together. Eleven minutes after declaring independence in 1948, the United States was the first to recognize the state of Israel, and today, we continue to strengthen the unbreakable bond between our two democracies,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in his announcement of the visit.

The news comes amid increased violence between Israel and Palestinians. Further, a slate of constitutional judicial reforms pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparked mass protest from Israelis in May and rebuke from the Biden administration. 

Netanyahu announced Thursday that a pared-back version of the reforms would go forward.

Netanyahu was elected to a sixth term last year but has not been invited to the White House since returning to power. A Reuters analysis found that only two of Israel’s 13 prime ministers had not visited the U.S. at this point in their terms.