US President Joe Biden told reporters he does not have any plans to address the Knesset, after saying over the weekend that he may do so to directly appeal to the Israeli public regarding his concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
After telling MSNBC that he might take the far-reaching step, he declined to provide any additional information.
On Monday, a member of the White House pool asked him if he has plans to address the Knesset. “No, not at this moment,” Biden responded.
Asked whether he has scheduled a meeting with Netanyahu, who he last spoke with roughly two weeks ago, Biden said, “no.”
Pressed whether he plans to schedule such a meeting, Biden added, “We’ll see what happens.” In hot mic comments last week, the US president said he needed to have a “come to Jesus” talk with the premier.
Biden regularly takes questions from the White House pool while traveling to and from events. Over the past several months, a wildly disproportionate number of questions have been about Israel.
In the footage aired by MSNBC of its interview with Biden, nearly eight of the ten minutes were of questions regarding Israel.
The US president’s latest comments came as he has taken an increasingly critical tone toward Netanyahu over the military campaign that Israel launched against Hamas following the October 7 terror onslaught. In an interview Monday, Netanyahu pushed back against Biden, saying the US criticism was encouraging Hamas and that Israelis were united behind the war’s aims.
Separately Monday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the process of transferring a massive shipment of flour sent by the US to Gaza has started, after it was held up by Israel for nearly two months.
Miller did not specify when trucks carrying this flour capable of feeding 1.5 million Gazans for five months began entering Gaza, but said during a briefing that Israel recently agreed to release flour from its Ashdod port and was “mak[ing] its way into Gaza — something we’ve been support for some time.”
Netanyahu privately informed the Biden administration that Israel approved the shipment in early January. The White House announced the development on January 19.
The shipment arrived at the port in Ashdod, but Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich blocked its transfer to UNRWA, which came under fire in January over allegations that 12 of its staffers participated in the October 7 atrocities.
On February 22, a US official told The Times of Israel that the new arrangement, with Israel’s agreement, will allow for the flour shipment to move forward, after Smotrich blocked its transfer for over a month.
The flour is to be ferried into Gaza by the World Food Program, rather than via the UNRWA relief agency for Palestinian refugees, the official said.
The delay has angered the Biden administration, which has repeatedly noted in recent weeks that Israel is violating the commitments it made to the president.
Miller said the release of the flour was one of several modest improvements seen in the Gaza humanitarian operation over the past several days.
He also said trucks carrying aid have been able to move around southern Gaza more freely than they were in recent weeks. There have also been convoys that successfully reached northern Gaza, where aid access has been particularly limited, Miller added.
Gaza aid distribution ground to a halt last month, in the wake of a breakdown of law and order. After dozens of Palestinians were killed while trying to collect aid in northern Gaza on February 29, the Biden administration began airdropping aid into Gaza and announced the establishment of a marine corridor, which it aims to have up and running in two months.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.