Recent events between Obama and Netanyahu have exposed a widening rift between the two leaders.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUS Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)(photo credit: REUTERS)
In comments made on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, Speaker of the House John Boehner described the Obama administration's treatment of Benjamin Netanyahu as "reprehensible," alluding to the ongoing rift between the two leaders.“I think the animosity exhibited by our administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible,” the Republican from Ohio said.After a highly controversial speech to a joint session of Congress and recent comments made by Netanyahu during the Israeli elections, in which he assured his constituents he would prevent a Palestinian state from being established only to reverse himself after winning re-election, ties between Washington and Jerusalem have become strained.Boehner did not appear to be concerned with Netayahu's back-tracking on the Palestinian issue.“He doesn’t have a partner. How do you have a two-state solution when you don’t have a partner in that solution, when you don’t have a partner for peace, when the other state has vowed to wipe you off the face of the Earth,” Boehner said. “So until there’s a willing partner, willing to sit down and have peace talks, I think it’s irrelevant whether we’re talking about a two-state solution.”Meanwhile, Republican senators met with Netanyahu earlier Sunday, headed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The meeting centered around the current Iranian nuclear talks underway in Switzerland, which Israel has repeatedly referred to as a "bad deal."In a statement released to the press, Netanyahu said "we are very much concerned for our common interests by the developments in the Middle East...And as Israel and the Arab countries see Iran progressing with its aggression to conquer Yemen and the Bab el-Mandeb straits, talks continue as usual and go on, on a deal that from everything that we hear paves Iran’s way to the bomb."
