NEW YORK — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with representatives of the Biden administration in New York City on Tuesday during a muted trip to the United States.
Gallant met with US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf and was scheduled to meet with National Security Council Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, the Defense Ministry said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely understood to be barring ministers from high-level meetings in Washington, DC, as the premier awaits on a meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Leaf and McGurk’s decision to travel from Washington to New York in order to meet with Gallant came against the backdrop of reports that the Biden administration is concerned that damage to Israel’s military readiness caused by reservists protesting the government’s judicial overhaul could also harm US-Israel security cooperation.
Gallant’s office did not announce any further plans to meet with US officials — including defense chiefs — during the trip or plans to travel to Washington. Gallant has previously met with US defense officials in Israel as well as in Brussels.
Ties with the US have strained under Netanyahu’s hardline coalition due to its divisive overhaul, policies toward the Palestinians, inflammatory statements from far-right ministers and other incidents.
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid will travel to Washington next week for high-level meetings with White House and State Department officials, in what will likely further highlight the divide between the US and the current Israeli government.
Netanyahu received an invitation from US President Joe Biden to meet in the US during a July phone call, but it remains unclear whether the two will meet at the White House. Biden could meet Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in mid-September — a lower profile setting than the Oval Office photo op that the premier likely envisions as he seeks to restore his diplomatic bona fides, which have taken a hit due to his government’s hardline policies.
Gallant has not attended any public events since arriving in the US on Thursday, and none of his meetings have been up to the press.
On Monday, Gallant held a closed meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN Headquarters to discuss Lebanon and its Hezbollah terror group ahead of a vote later this week on renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in the country. Earlier in the day, Guterres met with Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bouhabib.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (left) meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the UN headquarters in New York, August 29, 2023. (United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres)
The secretary-general’s office did not issue a readout on either meeting.
Also at the UN on Monday, Gallant met with US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield to discuss regional security, a spokesperson for the US mission said.
Thomas-Greenfield reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to Israel’s security and the two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict and discussed with Gallant the need to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank, the US mission’s readout said.
Earlier Tuesday, met with Defense Ministry officials stationed in New York and discussed their cooperation with the US Defense Department, his office said.
On Sunday, Gallant attended a fundraiser in Chicago for the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, he said on Facebook. He also met with Israel’s consul general in the city Yinam Cohen along with the president of Chicago’s Jewish Federation Lonnie Nasatir.
Anti-overhaul activists protest outside UN Headquarters as Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in New York City, August 28, 2023. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
The trip has also been marred by persistent protests by Israeli activists in the US who oppose the government’s judicial overhaul.
Several dozen protesters gathered outside Gallant’s hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday during his meeting with Leaf. Security stationed at the entrance were seen moving toward a side entrance, apparently to escort officials through another entryway, avoiding the demonstrators.
Before Gallant’s meetings were publicly announced, the activists obtained information about his schedule and groups of them gathered outside all of his official meetings at the UN, the Israeli consulate and his hotel.
Individual protesters also heckled Gallant inside the UN, in his hotel, and during a jog in Central Park, activists said.
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