Israeli prime ministerial hopeful Isaac Herzog on Tuesday promised to "rehabilitate" ties with the United States if he manages to unseat incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu in the country's March 17 elections.

Ynetnews reported relations between the traditional allies have suffered because of a controversial speech Netanyahu plans to give before a joint session of the U.S. Congress, which the leader of Israel's center-left Labor party claimed will harm the Jewish state's "strategic alliance" with Washington.

"My first step as prime minister will be to rehabilitate ties with the (United States)," Herzog said. "Our strategic relations with the (United States) help us preserve our security, as well as our economy."

During an address to the traditional Munich Security Conference, the candidate enumerated a strong economy, a strong society and strong alliances as three requisites for a secure Israel, according to Haaretz.

"The definition of true national security, as I see it, requires much more than just guns, essential as they are," Herzog said.

Careful not to attack Netanyahu too harshly outside Israeli territory, Herzog still managed to criticize the prime minister's planned appearance before Congress. In a break with regular diplomatic protocol, Netanyahu has been invited by House Republicans and will not meet with President Barack Obama when he travels to Washington for his March 3 address.

"The art of diplomacy is not in speeches but in intense, intimate coordination with allies who share the same basic interests," Herzog hinted in the Bavarian capital.

Netanyahu's address is "a strategic mistake," Herzog later said more bluntly, according to the Jerusalem Post. 

"I would never operate this way as prime minister, he added. "(But) I am not here to criticize my prime minister. I intend to replace him in the elections."

Netanyahu's center-right Likud party, meanwhile, called the challenger's Munich comments "an irresponsible crossing of red lines," Haaretz noted.

Behind the scenes of the conference, Herzog informally met Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry. Despite his constitutional role as president of the U.S. Senate, Biden has said he would not attend Netanyahu's speech before Congress. An aide to Biden told the Jerusalem Post that Herzog greeted the vice president "in passing," but that "no meetings, formal or informal, were held."