Secretary of State John Kerry contradicted National Security Adviser Susan Rice by saying that Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “welcome to speak in the United States” and by saying that the U.S.-Israel relationship is at an historic high. Kerry made the comments this morning on ABC:
“Let’s move back then to Israel and Iran,” said the ABC host. “You’re headed over for further negotiations. While you’re gone, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing Congress. Susan Rice said it was destrictive to U.S.-Israeli relations. Do you agree?”
“Well, look,” Kerry said, “the prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously, and we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history. I was reviewing the record the other day: we have intervened on Israel’s behalf in the last two years more than a couple of hundred times in over 75 different fora in order to protect israel. I talked to the prime minister regularly, including yesterday. We don’t want to see this turned into some great political football. Obviously, it was odd if not unique that we learned of it from the speaker of the House and that the administration was not included in the process. But the administration is not seeking to politicize this.”
