Obama treatment of Netanyahu ‘reprehensible,’ Boehner says

In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union, House Speaker John Boehner criticizes the Obama administration’s treatment of Netanyahu.

“I think the animosity exhibited by our administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible,” Boehner says. “And I think that the pressure that they’ve put on him over the last four or five years have frankly pushed him to the point where he had to speak up.”

“I don’t blame him at all for speaking up,” he says.

Boehner says his upcoming Israel trip was planned months ago, and is not “a victory lap” after Netanyahu’s reelection.

He says the US-Israel relationship has been “strengthened” over the past few months, and his visit aims to improve ties with the US’s “important ally” further.

Boehner also downplayed Netanyahu’s remarks about the two-state solution.

“Well, he doesn’t have a partner,” Boehner says. “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 you’ve got a — when the other state is vowing to wipe you off the face of the earth?”