Schumer to Join Johnson in Inviting Netanyahu to Congress

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gave his clearest indication yet that he will invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a joint address before Congress.

He intends to sign on to an invitation Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) drafted around a month ago, Schumer’s office confirmed to the Washington Examiner.

“The timing is being worked out,” the spokesperson said.

The statement, which follows Johnson’s acknowledgment of the draft invitation to the Hill, is only an incremental step toward the gesture and not altogether surprising. Schumer previously indicated his openness. But the development comes amid a period of intense bitterness between Washington Democrats and Netanyahu, who has defied the White House with his casualty-heavy war in Gaza.

In March, Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the United States, said Netanyahu had become an obstacle to peace and called for new elections in Israel.

“Israel has no stronger ally than the United States, and our relationship transcends any one president or any one prime minister. I will always welcome the opportunity for the prime minister of Israel to speak to Congress in a bipartisan way,” Schumer said at the time.

Democrats have been overwhelmingly supportive of Israel, but Netanyahu in particular has been a polarizing figure who previously drew their ire for judicial reforms they said represented democratic backsliding.

The last time Netanyahu addressed Congress was in 2015 at the invitation of then-Speaker John Boehner to excoriate the Iran nuclear deal the Obama administration had forged. Boehner kept then-President Barack Obama in the dark about the invite, prompting several Democrats to boycott the address. Schumer, however, wasn’t among the protesters, saying the relationship between the U.S. and Israel transcends the rift with the speaker.

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Netanyahu recently updated Senate Republicans on the war in Gaza, sparked by the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in a virtual meeting that came one week after Schumer’s call to replace him. Democrats rejected a similar request from Netanyahu.

Around the same time, Schumer met with Benny Gantz, a political rival of Netanyahu serving in his war cabinet. Gantz made the trip to Washington without the prime minister’s permission.