Johnson says he will invite Netanyahu to address Congress
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he planned to invite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to address a joint session of Congress, welcoming a leader who has become a flashpoint for partisan disagreement in American politics over the war in Gaza.
Mr Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, made the invitation a day after Mr Netanyahu attacked Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, during a private meeting with Senate Republicans before a speech in which the New York Democrat cast him as an obstacle to the peace. and called for possible elections to replace him.
“I would like to see him come and address a joint session of Congress; we will certainly extend that invitation,” Mr. Johnson said of Mr. Netanyahu in an interview on CNBC. Mr Johnson said he had also been invited to speak before Israel’s Knesset.
Mr. Schumer on Wednesday rejected a request from Mr. Netanyahu to speak virtually with Senate Democrats at their own behind-closed-doors celebratory lunch, saying it was not helpful to Israel if the discussions with the prime minister were in a partisan forum would take place.
But on Thursday he said he would support an Israeli prime minister’s speech to the entire congress if Mr Johnson went ahead with the invitation.
“Israel has no stronger ally than the United States and our relationship transcends any president or prime minister,” Schumer said in a statement. “I will always welcome the opportunity for the Prime Minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan manner.”
The statement came a week after Mr. Schumer delivered an explosive speech in the Senate in which he sharply criticized Mr. Netanyahu, naming him and his right-wing coalition alongside Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority as the main obstacles to peace.
The comments and the Republican responses that followed have underscored a growing partisan divide in the United States over Netanyahu’s leadership as Israel’s war against Hamas continues, and a struggle between members of both parties to define themselves as the true allies of the Jewish community. stands.
A spokesman said Mr. Johnson had not yet discussed plans with Mr. Schumer, who would have to sign any invitation to speak before a joint session of Congress.
Mr. Netanyahu infuriated Democrats in 2015 by accepting an invitation from Republicans, who then controlled the House and Senate, to deliver a speech to Congress condemning the Iran nuclear deal while the Obama administration negotiated it.