Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started off his hotly contested address to Congress with an olive branch for President Obama and congressional Democrats.
“I will always be grateful to President Obama,” Netanyahu told a joint session of Congress in the House chamber Tuesday, a strategic expression of solidarity with a president and a party whose special relationship with Israel has come under heavy pressure in this decade.
Netanyahu was invited to address the legislative branch by Republican House Speaker John Boehner — an invitation that brought furious criticism from the White House and a boycott of the speech by more than a dozen legislative Democrats. But he sought to downplay the differences with the Democrats at the outset of his speech, which, after introductory pleasantries, focused on familiar warnings about Iran’s nuclear program and implicit criticisms of U.S. dealings with the Shiite theocracy.
Netanyahu also give consideration to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, and the beginning of his highly anticipated address contained more polite words for the enduring relationship between Israel and the United States.
Though the Obama presidency has seen growing pressures on the relationship between Israel and the Democratic Party, Netanyahu was at pains to present his comments as a cross-party appeal. The relationship between the United States and Israel, he said, must always transcend politics.
But the Republicans’ growing closeness to Netanyahu and his Likud government was also clear. He was welcomed to the floor by Boehner using the same words the speaker uses to introduce the president at the State of the Union address.
Netanyahu turned to the Iranian threat quickly.
“Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian potentate to destroy it,” Netanyahu said.
