Netanyahu address a bid to 'score points'

Analysts say move is part of a plan to counter Obama and project him as anti-Israel by pointing out leaders' differences in opinion.

WASHINGTON // In a challenge to the Obama administration's Middle East policy, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has been invited by an opposition leader to address the US Congress in May.

The invitation, extended by John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, has raised eyebrows even in a city where support for Israel is a default setting for most politicians.

Using a foreign leader to score foreign policy points against your own president might seem unusual, but Israel is "as much a domestic issue as it is a foreign policy issue," said M J Rosenberg, a policy analyst with Media Matters for America, an online research and information centre.

"The significance [of the invitation] is to put Obama on the spot. Netanyahu will come here and give a speech that will be very right wing and hard line. And anywhere Obama deviates from the Netanyahu line, the Republicans will use it to say he is anti-Israel."

It is not the first time that Republican legislators have turned to Mr Netanyahu to counter Mr Obama. In November, not long after Republicans won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor, the new majority leader, announced after a meeting with Mr Netanyahu that the Republicans would serve as a "check" on the administration.

Mr Cantor also said that the Republican Party "understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other."

Mr Cantor issued a clarification after his statement was criticised in the Jewish Telegraph as essentially a pledge of allegiance to a foreign leader over the US president. Mr Rosenberg said Republican motives in extending the invite to Mr Netanyahu had little to do with foreign policy and everything to do with fund-raising.

"This is about helping the Republicans raise money from the pro-Israel community … The Republicans want to appear more 'pro-Israel' than the Democrats, when in fact both parties have the exact same view, which is that basically they support Netanyahu no matter what he does," Mr Rosenberg said.

Nevertheless, the invitation - Mr Netanyahu is expected to address Congress on May 24 - comes at a time of unprecedented turmoil in the Middle East that the US administration has struggled to address with consistency.

The White House has been debating whether to make a major policy address on the Middle East. But one now looks set to be delivered sometime in May.

The address would probably include the administration's position on the stalled peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis, and might set out core principles for new talks.

Washington will also try to head off Palestinian attempts to seek statehood recognition from the UN's General Assembly in June. Palestinian officials have been working hard to secure the two-thirds majority needed. On Tuesday, Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister, said he was confident such a majority could be found.

On April 13, a meeting of international donor countries to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and international development organisations in Brussels boosted Palestinian ambitions to seek recognition by declaring that the PA was "above the threshold for a functioning state in key sectors".

The administration has opposed the Palestinian efforts at the UN. In February, the US vetoed an attempt by the Palestinians to secure a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in occupied territory as illegal.

The Obama administration has, however, failed to establish a serious negotiating process between the Palestinians and Israelis, after stepping back in the face of Israeli opposition from an early position that settlement construction in occupied territory should cease during negotiations. It is this failure that prompted the Palestinian effort at the UN.

Indeed, the perceived bias of US mediation efforts was a theme taken up in an op-ed by Abdullah Gul, Turkey's president, in The New York Times on Wednesday.

"[I]t is my firm conviction that the United States has a long-overdue responsibility to side with international law and fairness when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," Mr Gul wrote in a piece arguing the importance of re-energising the pursuit of a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Turkey is an important strategic partner for the US, not least in Iraq.

"Securing a lasting peace in the Middle East is the greatest favour Washington can do for Israel."