Benjamin Netanyahu recently accepted an invitation from speaker of the House John Boehner to address the U.S. Congress in March. Netanyahu is now being criticized by American and Israeli pundits, as well as White House officials, for allowing himself to be drawn into a U.S. political spat. The fuss over the invitation, writes Elliott Abrams, amounts to sheer pettiness:
Obama administration officials who are trying to argue that Netanyahu’s invitation from Speaker Boehner is outrageous and political (just a few days after the president got British prime minister Cameron to lobby Congress directly) will lose the argument. Iran’s nuclear program is one of the most significant national-security issues we face and an even larger issue for Israel, and Israel is one of this country’s closest allies. The bad blood between Obama and Netanyahu, which has included personal attacks on Netanyahu by the White House staff, should not be allowed to color what the speaker does. . . .
But the White House’s whining about Boehner’s invitation is [also] amateurish, and . . . will persuade few Americans beyond the Beltway.
Read more on Pressure Points: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2015/01/26/about-that-netanyahu-invitation-to-address-congress