Vice President Joe Biden will not attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech before a Joint Session of Congress next month, instead choosing to travel to Guatemala and Uruguay.
Biden's trip to attend a summit in Guatemala and the inauguration of President Tabare Vazquez in Uruguay solves a sticky problem for the White House since Biden is constitutionally obligated to preside over Joint Sessions of Congress, yet Obama did not want to associate himself with Netanyahu before the latter's election in Israel later in March.
Netanyahu and Obama have strong disagreements over Obama's nuclear weapon negotiations with Iran and Netanyahu is widely expected to criticize Obama's strategy in front of Congress next month.
Dozens of House Democrats are considering joining Obama and Biden in snubbing Netanyahu as well. The White House has told Democrats to make up their own minds about whether to not to attend the Match 3rd speech.