Home Speaker Mike Johnson stated Thursday that he deliberate to ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to deal with a joint session of Congress, shifting to welcome a pacesetter who has develop into a flashpoint for partisan disagreement in American politics over the battle in Gaza.
Mr. Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, introduced up the invitation someday after Mr. Netanyahu assailed Senator Chuck Schumer, the bulk chief, in a non-public assembly with Senate Republicans for a speech wherein the New York Democrat singled him out as an obstacle to peace and referred to as for eventual elections to exchange him.
“I’d like to have him come and handle a joint session of Congress; we’ll definitely lengthen that invitation,” Mr. Johnson stated of Mr. Netanyahu in an interview on CNBC. Mr. Johnson stated he had additionally been invited to talk in entrance of the Israeli Knesset.
Mr. Schumer on Wednesday declined a request from Mr. Netanyahu to talk nearly to Senate Democrats at their very own closed-door occasion lunch, saying it was not useful to Israel for discussions with the prime minister to occur in a partisan discussion board.
However on Thursday, he stated he would assist an handle by the Israeli prime minister in entrance of the whole Congress if Mr. Johnson moved ahead with the invitation.
“Israel has no stronger ally than america and our relationship transcends anybody president or anybody prime minister,” Mr. Schumer stated in a press release. “I’ll at all times welcome the chance for the prime minister of Israel to talk to Congress in a bipartisan method.”
The assertion got here per week after Mr. Schumer delivered an explosive speech on the Senate flooring wherein he harshly criticized Mr. Netanyahu, naming him and his right-wing coalition alongside Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority chief, as the primary obstacles to peace.
The remarks and the Republican backlash that has adopted have underscored a rising partisan divide in america over Mr. Netanyahu’s management as Israel’s battle towards Hamas rages on, and a battle between members of each events to outline themselves because the true allies of the Jewish state.
A spokesman stated that Mr. Johnson had not but mentioned any plans with Mr. Schumer, who must log off on any invitation for an handle earlier than a joint session of Congress.
Mr. Netanyahu enraged Democrats in 2015 by accepting an invite from Republicans who then managed the Home and Senate to ship an handle to Congress condemning the Iran nuclear deal because the Obama administration was negotiating it.