WASHINGTON: The strain between the US and Israel deepened on Wednesday after a top adviser to President Barack Obama dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress as “destructive”, while the Israeli leader rejected an invitation to meet Senate Democrats.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Netanyahu’s March 3 speech, which was arranged by Republican congressional leaders, has “injected a degree of partisanship” into a relationship that should be above politics. “It’s destructive to the fabric of the relationship,” Susan Rice said at a television show on Tuesday.

“It’s always been bipartisan. We need to keep it that way.” Rice’s statements were among the Obama administration’s toughest public criticism of Netanyahu’s speech and the negative impact it could have on the close alliances between the US and Israel.

The Israeli leader’s speech was arranged without the White House or State Department’s knowledge, a move the administration blasted as a breach of diplomatic protocol. Rice’s comments came as Netanyahu turned down an invitation to meet Senate Democrats in private during his trip to Washington, saying such a session could “compound the misperception of partisanship” surrounding his visit.

“I regret that the invitation to address the special joint session of Congress has been perceived by some to be political or partisan,” Netanyahu wrote in a letter to Senators Dick Durbin and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats.

“I can assure you that my sole intention in accepting it was to voice Israel’s grave concern about a potential nuclear agreement with Iran that could threaten the survival of my country.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2015

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