Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday congratulated Joe Biden on becoming the 46th President of the United States, and also offered their congratulations to Kamala Harris on becoming vice president – the first woman in US history to be elected to this office.
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"President Biden, you and I have had a warm personal friendship going back many decades," Netanyahu tweeted.
"I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the US-Israel alliance, to continue expanding peace between Israel and the Arab world, and to confront common challenges, chief among them the threat posed by Iran," the prime minister wrote.
Congratulations President @JoeBiden and Vice President @KamalaHarris on your historic inauguration.
President Biden, you and I have had a warm personal friendship going back many decades. pic.twitter.com/3cO4Zb1o1Q
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) January 20, 2021
Rivlin said that the US has no better friend than Israel and says ties between the country go beyond political parties and are based on shared values.
"Our region is changing quickly. Many of the changes are positive. The recent peace deals between Israel and our neighbors brought new hope with them and I expect to work with you to help build further bridges in the region, including with our Palestinian neighbors," Rivlin says in a message addressed to Biden.
Congratulations to President @JoeBiden, 46th President of the United States, and to Vice President @KamalaHarris. The people of @Israel salute you and wish you great success.@POTUS#InaugurationDay2021
Photo credit: Mark Neyman (GPO) pic.twitter.com/51bbxxHwBx
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) January 20, 2021
World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder issued a statement saying, "On behalf of the more than 100 Jewish communities across the globe affiliated with the World Jewish Congress, I am delighted to extend my most heartfelt congratulations to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. on his inauguration as the 46th president of the United States and to Kamala Harris as vice president.
"In 2016, when the World Jewish Congress honored President Biden with our highest award, the WJC Theodor Herzl Award, he said, 'Indifference is silence, and silence is consent.' I know that he will continue to stand by those words as he takes the helm of this country and steers us toward a future of equality, standing up and speaking out for what is fair and what is right.
"The World Jewish Congress, and I personally, look forward to working closely with the Biden-Harris administration in meeting the many challenges that confront us, both domestically and internationally, starting with the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic that threatens all of us, and the urgent need to rid our society of antisemitism, racism, xenophobia, and all other forms of ethnic or religious hatred, and to counter Holocaust denial, distortion, trivialization, and mockery wherever it appears," the statement read.
President of the Ruderman Family Foundation Jay Ruderman said in a statement that "following the incredibly contentious [presidential] race and post-election transition, which underscored the substantial divisions that exist not only among the US population as a whole but among American Jewry as well as between American Jews and their Israeli counterparts, President Joe Biden now has an urgent priority and historic opportunity to heal and unify the nation.
"In fact, unity and healing were central messages articulated by the Biden campaign and transition team. We congratulate President Biden on his inauguration and look forward to seeing his administration put his campaign's aspirations into action on a policy level. In turn, greater unity in America will inevitably make a beneficial impact on the tenor of dialogue both within the American Jewish community and in the Israel-American Jewry relationship."
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