Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was heading to Washington, DC on Sunday for a whirlwind visit whose main aim is to get the United States to unfreeze a shipment of heavy-duty bombs it has been withholding from Israel.
The trip came amid a public spat between US President Joe Biden’s administration and the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Tuesday issued a video statement attacking the US for its “inconceivable” weapons holdup, claiming that more arms shipments have also been held back.
The White House has since repeatedly insisted it has “no idea” what Netanyahu was referring to besides the one shipment, though the premier has since doubled down.
Some analysts have speculated that Netanyahu’s video was aimed at ensuring the premier would receive the credit if the US agreed to move forward with the transfer following Gallant’s visit.
The Ynet news site quoted an unnamed Israeli security source as saying Jerusalem had been “very close” to reaching an agreement with Washington on the matter, but that this progress was halted when Netanyahu issued the video. Channel 12 news similarly speculated that the Biden administration was unlikely to budge on the matter as a result of the disagreement going public.
Netanyahu himself is due to soon visit the US, with an address to a joint session of Congress scheduled for July 24.
According to Hebrew media, Gallant was expected to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, CIA Director William Burns and Special Envoy Amos Hochstein.
It is the second time the minister visits the United States amid the war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’s shock October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Gallant was reportedly set to discuss a range of issues besides the arms shipment, including other weapons the Israeli military needs, as well as the war in Gaza and the threats Israel is facing from Lebanon and Iran.
He was being joined by Defense Ministry Director-General Eyal Zamir and by Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Amir Baram — the latter of whom is the most senior IDF official to travel to the US since the war began.
They were set to hold meetings with senior officials in the American military and present Israel’s plans for a potential major offensive against the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, according to Ynet, as well as presenting the results of the ongoing operation in Gaza’s Rafah, which is expected to wind down in the next few weeks and move to a phase of targeted raids.
The visit was also set to touch on Iran’s nuclear program, which according to the UN watchdog has continued to expand throughout Israel’s war against its proxies.