WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden plans to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington in the coming months, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides.

Mr Nides, in a separate interview with the Times of Israel, said no date has been set, adding: “They will see each other personally, I’m sure, quite soon. Without question, he’ll be coming to the White House as soon as their schedules can be coordinated.”

The reports come after Mr Netanyahu on Monday delayed a decision on bitterly contested plans for a judicial overhaul after they triggered some of the biggest protests in Israeli history.

Mr Nides, in an interview on Israeli radio, said he expected any planned meeting to take place after the Jewish festival of Passover ends on April 13.

An unnamed US official separately told the Times of Israel that the White House was unlikely to focus on a visit until after the spring religious holiday season, and that a meeting between the leaders was unlikely to happen for another one to two months.

Reuters reported that no invitation has been extended yet to Mr Netanyahu.

Any such invitation could give the embattled Israeli leader a boost.

There have been general talks about a visit by Mr Netanyahu, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

“No invitation extended and no dates yet,” the person said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Mr Netanyahu had no immediate comment.

The United States welcomed Mr Netanyahu’s delay of the judicial overhaul decision.

Mr Biden had shared his concerns about the overhaul directly with Mr Netanyahu, the White House said.

In Tel Aviv, meanwhile, the Israeli defence chief whose dismissal by Mr Netanyahu brought the country’s political crisis to a climax is remaining in office until further notice, aides said on Tuesday, suggesting government indecision on how to proceed.

Beset by unprecedented nationwide protests at his nationalist-religious coalition’s signature plan to overhaul the judiciary, Mr Netanyahu on Monday pressed the pause button and called for compromise talks with the centre-left opposition.

“We are in the midst of a crisis that is endangering the basic unity between us,” he said in a prime-time television address.

“This crisis necessitates that we all conduct ourselves responsibly.”

Mr Netanyahu’s move on Monday stabilised Israel’s shaken economy. But questions remained about Mr Netanyahu’s credibility – including within his own camp – after dissent by some senior Likud party colleagues.

Among these was Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who on Saturday broke ranks by openly calling for a halt to the overhaul in the name of preventing anti-reform protests from spreading in the military.

A day later, Mr Netanyahu said he was firing Mr Gallant.

Ordinarily, that termination would have gone into effect on Tuesday.

But Mr Gallant’s aides said he never got the notification letter formally required to begin the 48-hour countdown to his removal from office, and was continuing to work indefinitely.

Asked whether Mr Gallant was being kept on or replaced, spokesmen for Mr Netanyahu and Likud had no immediate comment.

An opinion poll by top-rated Channel 12 TV found that 63 per cent of Israelis – and 58 per cent of Likud voters – opposed a Gallant ouster.

Similar majorities supported Mr Netanyahu pausing the reforms.

But with 68 per cent of Israelis faulting him for the crisis, Channel 12 found that, were an election held today, Mr Netanyahu and coalition allies would lose.

Two of those parties, Religious Zionism and Jewish Power, voiced misgiving at the reform pause.

Jewish Power’s leader, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Mr Netanyahu had assured him that if compromise talks over the Passover festival and other national holidays in April fail, the coalition would pursue the reforms unilaterally.

In Parliament, the coalition on Tuesday tabled for final readings a key Bill that would give Mr Netanyahu greater control of the system for selecting judges. A parliamentary spokesman called this a technicality.

Asked how soon the coalition could call a ratification vote, he said: “In theory, the day after.”

There were charges of bad faith from the opposition, which has already named a negotiating team for the compromise talks.

“A gun is being held to our heads,” tweeted former finance minister Avigdor Lieberman.

He accused Mr Netanyahu of using the pause in the judicial overhaul to deplete the anti-government protests, and urged fellow opposition leaders to withdraw their negotiators until the judges’ Bill is withdrawn from the plenum.

Likud has yet to say who would represent the coalition in the talks. There was no immediate word from President Isaac Herzog, the host of the negotiations, on when they might begin.

While Israeli streets were mostly quiet on Tuesday, some of the tens of thousands of Israelis who have held escalating protests against the judicial overhaul said they would return.

“I will continue protesting until these reforms are completely dropped, because this isn’t a set of reforms, this is a coup by the executive,” said Mr Eitan Kahana, a 27-year-old demonstrator in Jerusalem.

Critics say the judicial overhaul threatens the independence of the courts.

Mr Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges he denies, said the reforms balance out branches of government. REUTERS