House Speaker John Boehner has defended his invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress, with the speaker saying he is “trying to strengthen the president’s hand” in negotiations with Iran.
“The fact is, we have every right to do what we did,” the Ohio Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Netanyahu is slated to speak on March 3. Some Democrats, including Vice President Joe Biden, have said they will not attend the speech. President Obama has declined to meet with Netanyahu on his visit, saying the White House has a longstanding policy that prevents the president from meeting with foreign dignitaries so close to an election in their home countries. (Israel holds its elections two weeks after the speeech.)
In the Fox interview, Boehner cited the growing threat from groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons and what he said were “few words” given on the issue by President Obama in his recent State of the Union speech. He called the Israeli leader’s talk “important messages that the Congress needs to hear and the American people need to hear.”
Program host Chris Wallace asked Boehner why he shouldn’t wait to first see whether a framework could be arrived at with Iran by the March 24 deadline over that country’s nuclear program.
“We’re trying to strengthen the president’s hand in these negotiations,” the speaker said.
Asked by Wallace whether, with the Netanyahu invitation, Boehner had taken a bipartisan issue — American support for Israel — and “turned it into a political football,” the speaker replied, “I have not.”
Boehner said he told Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, not to tip off the White House about the Netanayahu invitation “because I wanted to make sure that there was no interference.
“There’s no secret here in Washington about the animosity that this White House has for Prime Minister Netanyahu. I frankly didn’t want them getting in the way and quashing what I thought was a real opportunity.”
