Biden and Netanyahu speak for the first time in a month amid deepening rift

President Biden spoke by phone Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their first known interaction in more than a month as a rift deepens between the two men over the war in Gaza.

President Joe Biden spoke by phone Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their first known interaction in more than a month as a rift deepens between the two men over the war in Gaza. During the call, the White House said the leaders discussed two key areas where tension has emerged in the relationship, including the necessity of getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza and the pending Israeli operation in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinian civilians are sheltering. Monday’s phone call came days after one of Biden’s top allies in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, called for new Israeli elections that would result in Netanyahu’s ouster. Biden called the speech “good” and said it reflected the concerns of many Americans, though did not explicitly endorse nor condemn the call for new elections in Israel. Netanyahu on Sunday forcefully pushed back on Schumer’s speech during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash. “It’s inappropriate to go to a sister democracy and try to replace the elected leadership there. That’s something that Israel, the Israeli public does on its own, and we’re not a banana republic,” Netanyahu said on “State of the Union.”