Biden and Netanyahu hold their first conversation in weeks. Trump recently called the Israeli leader

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday held their first call in seven weeks, a conversation that comes as Israel expands its ground incursion into Lebanon and considers how to respond to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack.

Vice President Kamala Harris joined the call, according to the White House.

Netanyahu's office, meantime, confirmed that the prime minister had recently spoken with former President Donald Trump. The Republican, who is the midst of a close White House race against Harris, called Netanyahu last week and “congratulated him on the intense and determined operations that Israel carried out against Hezbollah,” according to Netanyahu's office.

The Biden-Netanyahu conversation comes at a moment of Biden's growing frustration with the prime minister and as the growing conflict in Middle East is adding a layer of complexity to the American election next month.

Netanyahu has repeatedly looked past the Biden administration's calls for cease-fires. They would at least temporary pause the fighting in Gaza, facilitate the release of some 100 hostages, who have been held by Hamas since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, and stem the growing conflict between the Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

The spreading conflict across the Mideast is looming over Harris in the final weeks of the White House campaign.

Some Arab-American votes in closely contested Michigan, and elsewhere, are threatening to withhold their support for the Democrat over their dissatisfaction with the administration's handling of the war in Gaza. Trump has increasingly criticized Harris and Biden for their foreign policy decisions as he makes his case to American voters to return him to the White House.

The Trump campaign said it should not be unsurprising that Netanyahu held talks with former president.

"World leaders want to speak and meet with President Trump because they know he will soon be returning to the White House and will restore peace around the globe,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in a statement about that call, which a Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., joined.

Israel has been discussing how to respond to the Iranian missile barrage from Oct. 1, which the United States helped to fend off. Biden last week said he would not support a retaliatory Israeli strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program.

Biden urged Israel to consider alternatives to hitting Iran's oil sector. Such a strike could affect the global oil market and boost pump prices, developments that would not help Harris' efforts to win over the shrinking number of undecided voters.

Netanyahu’s other choices range from a largely symbolic strike — similar to how Israel responded after Iran launched missiles and attack drones in April at Israel.

Since the leaders' last call on Aug. 21, Israel has carried out a brazen sabotage and assassination campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, where the militant group has continued to fire missiles, rockets and drones at Israel.

Israel is now undertaking what it has described as limited ground operations across its northern border with Lebanon to dig out Hezbollah. Airstrikes killed the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and decimated its leadership.

Last month, thousands of explosives hidden in pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah detonated, killing dozens of people and maiming thousands, including many civilians. Israel is widely believed to be behind the attack

The U.S. has maintained a stepped-up troop presence in the region, to defend Israel and American interests in the Middle East. Washington has grown increasingly vocal with Israeli officials about the need to be kept in the loop on their decision-making to ensure the protection of U.S. forces.

Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, had been scheduled to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, but the Israelis postponed the visit, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.

The Biden-Netanyahu took place one day after disclosures from journalist Bob Woodward's new book, “War" that Biden has privately made his frustration and distrust of Israeli leader known.

The president privately unleashed a profanity-laden tirade, calling him a “son of a bitch” and a “bad f——— guy,” according to the book.

Biden said he felt, in Woodward’s accounting, that Netanyahu “had been lying to him regularly.” With Netanyahu “continuing to say he was going to kill every last member of Hamas.” Woodward wrote, “Biden had told him that was impossible, threatening both privately and publicly to withhold offensive U.S. weapons shipment.”

The White House declined to comment.

Goldenberg reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

This combination image shows, from left; President Joe Biden, on March 12, 2020, in Wilmington, Del., and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Oct. 28, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo, File)

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

President Joe Biden disembarks Marine One after arriving on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appeared likely Wednesday to give Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip at least another day in court in his long quest to throw out his murder conviction and death sentence.

The justices heard arguments in a case that has produced a rare alliance in which lawyers for Glossip and the state argued that the high court should overturn Glossip’s conviction and death sentence because he did not get a fair trial.

The victim’s relatives have told the high court that they want to see Glossip executed.

Oklahoma's top criminal appeals court has repeatedly upheld the conviction and sentence, even after the state sided with Glossip.

The justices seemed unlikely to affirm the Oklahoma court, after arguments that lasted one and three quarters hours.

But precisely what the court would do was less clear. The justices could throw out the conviction, which would take Glossip off of death row.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who attended Wednesday's session, has conceded the trial was unfair. Drummond, a Republican, has said Glossip could face a new trial in the 1997 killing in Oklahoma City of his former boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese, in what prosecutors have alleged was a murder-for-hire scheme.

The justices also could, as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested, order state courts to conduct a new hearing to weigh claims that prosecutors suppressed evidence.

Only eight justices are hearing the case and a 4-4 tie would affirm the Oklahoma court ruling. Justice Neil Gorsuch is not taking part, presumably because he participated in it at an earlier stage when he was an appeals court judge.

At least five justices voted last year to block efforts to execute Glossip while his case played out.

Glossip has always maintained his innocence. Another man, Justin Sneed, admitted robbing Van Treese and beating him to death with a baseball bat but testified he only did so after Glossip promised to pay him $10,000. Sneed received a life sentence in exchange for his testimony and was the key witness against Glossip.

But evidence that emerged only last year persuaded Drummond.

Among Drummond’s concerns are that prosecutors suppressed evidence about Sneed's psychiatric condition that might have undermined his testimony. Drummond also has cited a box of evidence in the case that was destroyed that might have helped Glossip's defense.

At least four members of the court, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his three liberal colleagues made clear that they were troubled by the questions about Sneed's testimony.

Kavanaugh said “the whole case depended on his credibility.” Sneed, he said, “lied on the stand.”

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas seemed most inclined to uphold the conviction and death sentence.

The court is wrestling with two legal issues. The justices will consider whether Glossip’s rights were violated because the evidence wasn't turned over. They also will weigh whether the Oklahoma court decision upholding the conviction and sentence, reached after the state's position changed, should be allowed to stand.

Prosecutors in at least three other death penalty cases in Alabama and Texas have pushed for death row inmates to be given new trials or at least spared the prospect of being executed. The inmates are: Toforest Johnson in Alabama, and Melissa Lucio and Areli Escobar in Texas. In another similar case, the justices refused a last-minute reprieve for Marcellus Williams, whom Missouri executed last month.

The justices issued their most recent order blocking Glossip's execution last year. They previously stopped his execution in 2015, then ruled against him by a 5-4 vote in upholding Oklahoma's lethal injection process. He avoided execution then only because of a mix-up in the drugs that were to be used.

Glossip was initially convicted in 1998, but won a new trial ordered by a state appeals court. He was convicted again in 2004.

Two former solicitors general, Seth Waxman and Paul Clement, represent Glossip and Oklahoma, respectively, at the Supreme Court. Christopher Michel, an attorney appointed by the court, is defending the Oklahoma court ruling that Glossip should be put to death.

Michel suggested that a reconstituted state clemency board could be more favorable to Glossip than the 2-2 split that resulted when it last considered Glossip's case.

More than a half-dozen states also have weighed in on the case, asking the Supreme Court to uphold Glossip’s conviction, arguing that they have a “substantial interest” in federal-court respect for state-court decisions.

A decision is expected by early summer.

The Supreme Court is seen on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)