The controversy over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Washington at the invitation of the Republican-controlled Congress has deepened with a top aide of President Barack Obama going to the extent of dubbing the trip “destructive” to the fabric of US-Israel relations.
Netanyahu, having accepted an invitation from Republican Speaker John Boehner, is set to address a joint session of the US Congress on March 3 on Israel’s opposition to any nuclear agreement with Iran. The White House has termed the Speaker’s invitation a breach of protocol.
“What has happened over the last several weeks by virtue of the invitation that was issued by the Speaker and the acceptance of it by Prime Minister Netanyahu two weeks in advance of his election is that on both sides there has now been injected a degree of partisanship,” Obama’s National Security Advisor Susan Rice said in an interview, adding: “Which is not only unfortunate, I think it is destructive of the fabric of the relationship.”
The White House, incensed as it has been by Boehner’s push without consulting the administration and Netanyahu’s prompt acceptance of it, had let it be known more than a month ago that Obama would not be meeting Netanyahu during this visit, albeit for a different reason – the impending Israeli elections.
Despite the US and Israel being close allies, Obama and Netanyahu have not been on the best of terms. At the core of their strained working relationship has been Obama’s push for a diplomatic resolution of the Iran nuclear issue and Netanyahu’s strong opposition to it on the grounds that any deal with Tehran could threaten Israel’s survival.
In the midst of the raging controversy, Rice went public with the criticism of the Netanyahu visit in an interview with journalist Charlie Rose on PBS on Tuesday night.
Noting that US relations with Israel have always been of a bipartisan nature, Rice commented that the Speaker’s invitation and Netanyahu’s acceptance of it have broken a tradition and added a partisan dimension.
As she put it, “It (US-Israel ties) has always been bipartisan. We need to keep it that way. We want it that way. I think Israel wants it that way, the American people want it that way.”
In another twist to the row, Netanyahu on Tuesday turned down a separate invitation by Senate Democrats for a private meeting. “Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception regarding my upcoming visit,” Netanyahu told the Senate Democrats in his response.