HE was almost lost in the whirl of lawmakers, pundits, plutocrats and other boldface names who showed up for Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress last week. But the presence of Pat Boone was a key to understanding why John Boehner was playing a smart game of party politics to stand so solidly with the Israeli prime minister.

I’m referring to Boone the singer. But I really mean Boone the churchman. He’s a prominent figure among, and megaphone for, American’s evangelical Christians, who listened to Netanyahu’s remarks as closely and adoringly as any constituency in this country.

For the speech, Boone wore a tie on which the flag of Israel, with its Star of David, was conspicuous. Just afterward, he told David Weigel of Bloomberg Politics that he’d known Netanyahu personally for years and had held some hope that the prime minister would give him a special shout-out during the remarks.

And days earlier, on a radio show, Boone described Netanyahu as a friend who was well aware that evangelical Christians constitute some of “Israel’s most staunch supporters,” numbering “in the tens of millions in the United States.”