To say that President Obama doesn’t want Prime Minister Netanyahu interfering in his nuclear negotiations with Iran is an understatement. The Obama Administration has made increasingly hostile moves toward Netanyahu in recent weeks as they seek to prevent him from speaking to Congress next month. Never in the history of US-Israel relations has there been this much public tension between the leaders of the two nations.
When Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress, the White House was offended that they were not consulted beforehand. Since then, various Administration officials have lashed out against Boehner and Netanyahu in the media.
Obama’s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, harshly criticized the upcoming visit in an interview with PBS earlier this week. Rice said that Boehner’s invitation “injected a degree of partisanship” in the discourse on Iran that is “destructive to the fabric of the relationship” between the US and Israel. White House officials have repeatedly attempted to characterize the invitation as a Republican ploy to undermine the president for petty political reasons, rather than a genuine concern over Iran’s nuclear weapons.
A day later, Secretary of State John Kerry publicly questioned whether Netanyahu’s judgment on Iran could be trusted.
As President of the Senate, Vice President Biden should preside over the joint session of Congress, but has conveniently scheduled an international trip during the time Netanyahu will be in Washington.
President Obama has also refused to meet with Netanyahu while he is in DC, citing Israel’s upcoming elections as his reason for ignoring the prime minister’s visit.
For his part, Netanyahu has remained gracious but firm in his resolve to speak before Congress, despite the backlash and pressure from the White House. In a statement, Netanyahu said:
“I respect the White House and the US president, but on a matter so fateful that it could determine whether we exist or not, my obligation is to do everything to prevent such a great danger to the state of Israel.”
In a parallel that grows clearer by the day, Netanyahu will be the second foreign head of state to address a joint session of Congress three times. The first was Winston Churchill.
