Visit will follow Netanyahu’s surprise election victory this week and his speech to Congress earlier this month on Boehner’s invitation

The speaker of the House, John Boehner, will travel to Israel this month, in a move likely to further the simmering tensions between the White House and the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.

The trip, labeled “a victory lap” in the Israeli press, comes just days after Netanyahu won a decisive electoral victory.

“The speaker will visit Israel during the next district work period,” Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Boehner, told the Guardian. “He looks forward to visiting the country, discussing our shared priorities for peace and security in the region, and further strengthening the bond between the United States and Israel.”

A political furore broke out in Washington earlier this month after Boehner invited the Israeli leader to address Congress without consulting the Obama administration.



Although the trip had been planned months ago before Netanyahu called an election according to a congressional source, it comes at a time when US-Israeli relations are at their worst in decades. While Obama and Netanyahu have long had a difficult personal relationship, it became toxic in the aftermath of Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress on 3 March. There, theNetanyahu criticized what he perceived as American over-eagerness to strike an accord with Iran to curb that nation’s nuclear program. Netanyahu argued “no deal was better than a bad deal”.

Obama did not meet with Netanyahu on that trip, instead criticizing the Israeli leader’s ‘divisive rhetoric.’ The US president also pointedly waited days to congratulate the Israeli prime minister on his re-election victory.

In addition to the pending nuclear deal, the Obama administration has hinted that it could move away from protecting Israel at the UN and international institutions after controversial remarks made by Netanyahu during his re-election campaign about the creation of a Palestinian state. A two-state solution has been a key long-term policy in Washington.

During the campaign, Netanyahu answered a question from a reporter about whether a Palestinian state would not be established during his premiership by saying “correct”.

On Thursday, the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said that this statement “has prompted [the Obama administration] to re-evaluate our approach to this matter”.



Netanyahu later attempted to walk back his statement, saying that he had not reversed his endorsement of a two-state solution, first made in a milestone speech at Bar-Ilan University in 2009. In an interview with MSNBC, Netanyahu claimed he was merely acknowledging that, with the continued control of Gaza by the terrorist group Hamas, it was impossible for a two-state solution to be reached in the near future.

Boehner’s trip will serve to raise the stakes in the increasingly partisan debate over US relations with Israel. While the Obama administration increasingly looks askance at Netanyahu, there is still a strong bipartisan consensus for American support of Israel. By visiting Israel, Boehner will seek to further separate the White House from the mainstream on this issue as well as increase pressure on the Obama administration to reach a deal with Iran to stop that country’s nuclear program that will be acceptable to Congress.