Congressional leaders from both parties formally invite Netanyahu to address joint session of Congress

Congressional leaders from both parties have sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a formal invitation to address a joint session of Congress.

The letter is signed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The speech is expected to take place “as soon as the next eight weeks or soon after August recess,” a source familiar tells The Hill.

An Israeli official confirms Netanyahu’s receipt of the invitation to reporters.

The Hill says the invitation was issued after weeks of delay caused by Schumer, who gave a speech on the Senate floor in March calling for early elections in Israel to replace Netanyahu. Schumer ultimately acquiesced, saying he was prepared to cooperate in a Netanyahu address as long as it was done in a bipartisan way.

“We join the State of Israel in your struggle against terror, especially as Hamas continues to hold American and Israeli citizens captive and its leaders jeopardize regional stability,” the letter reads. “For this reason, on behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, we would like to invite you to address a Joint Meeting of Congress.”

An official familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel that Netanyahu has been speaking in recent weeks with interest to Republican Congressional leaders about a potential joint session address, viewing it as an opportunity to make Israel’s case on the global stage and is less concerned about some of the political fallout within the US.

Nearly 60 Democrats boycotted Netanyahu’s last joint session address in 2015, which was organized by Republican Congressional leaders behind the back of then-president Barack Obama in order for the Israeli premier to lobby against the nuclear deal that Washington wound up signing with Iran later that year.

A much larger number of Democrats would likely boycott a Netanyahu speech that comes amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which has become increasingly unpopular among progressives.

While Netanyahu appears to have shored up an invite from Congress, he has not yet received one from the White House and making the trip to Washington without one would only further highlight this divide.

Even before October 7, Netanyahu had not received an invite to the White House since his return to office in late 2022, as he quickly drew Biden’s ire over his efforts to radically overhaul Israel’s judiciary and actions seen as harming the US administration’s attempt to preserve prospects for a two-state solution. Biden visited Israel shortly after the Hamas-led attack, in the first-ever trip a US president has made to the Jewish state amid a war.