JERUSALEM, Israel – US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is in Israel for the first time this week to “strengthen and build again our nations’ 73-year partnership,” she said during public remarks in Jerusalem on Monday. 

Thomas-Greenfield met with top leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, President Isaac Herzog, and others to express the Biden administration’s support for the Jewish State.  

“President Biden shares Prime Minister Bennett’s commitment to a new spirit of cooperation as we address the full range of regional and global challenges together,” Thomas-Greenfield said at a press conference before meeting privately with Bennett.

The prime minister described Thomas-Greenfield as a “true friend” and thanked her for “representing a voice of decency and reason in an institution that I think we can both objectively say is pretty biased in terms of its treatment of Israel. 

“I know that you've always been standing up for us, you and the United States, throughout the years, standing on Israel's side and serving as a voice of truth,” said Bennett.

The ambassador praised the Abraham Accords and Israel’s other normalization agreements for making the “entire region safer and more prosperous” and reiterated the Biden administration’s support for a two-state peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. 

Thomas-Greenfield said after she met with Bennett that they discussed their joint efforts at the UN to “combat anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias.” The ambassador has long expressed her support for Israel at the United Nations. In October, she criticized the UN Security Council for disproportionately singling out the Jewish State. 

Thomas-Greenfield also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem alongside her Israeli counterpart Amb. Gilad Erdan. She said she was “deeply moved” by the experience and Erdan said their two countries “will continue promoting initiatives against antisemitism at the UN.”