John Boehner Netanyahu
John Boehner Netanyahu, A contentious speech before Congress by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month is well behind Washington at this point but an upcoming trip to Israel has House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, once again criticizing the administration's relationship with Israel.
"I think the animosity exhibited by our administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible. And I think that the pressure that they have 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," Boehner said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.
Boehner was asked specifically about Netanyahu's comments just before Israel's elections earlier this month, that a Palestinian state would not be established if he were reelected. It was a reversal from his previous position, and although the prime minister later backtracked from his comments, the White House continues to express skepticism about his intentions.President Obama said last week that the current tensions between the U.S. and Israel are not the result of a personality clash between himself and Netanyahu, but rather a "real knotty policy difference" that affects U.S.-Israeli relations.
But Boehner said Sunday the real problem is that Netanyahu's comments were justified given the current situation.
"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 is vowing to wipe you off the face of the earth?" Boehner said. "Until there's a ... partner willing to sit down and have peace talks, I think it's irrelevant whether we're talking about a two-state solution."
Boehner added that he believes a Palestinian state is an "inspirational goal" and that he backs a two-state solution "as long as you have got a willing partner willing to hold up their end of their deal."
Asked whether his invitation to Netanyahu to speak before Congress without consulting the White House had contributed to the breakdown in relations, Boehner said he was just trying to ensure that the American people and Congress "heard about the serious threat that Iran poses not only to the Middle East, but for the rest of the world, including the United States."
"The president doesn't want to talk about it. He doesn't want to talk about the threat of radical Islam and the fact that he has no strategy to deal with it. And when you begin to see all these leaks that have -- that probably came out of the White House in terms of what the Iranian deal was starting to shape up to be, there's a lot of concern in Congress on a bipartisan basis," Boehner said.The leaks about the ongoing negotiations - which are supposed to wrap up at the end of the month - prompted Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, and California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, to suggest on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the negotiation deadline be extended once again.
"Clearly, with a deadline of Tuesday, I'm concerned with what we might give away. The Iranians don't seem to want to conclude this," Burr said. "I think now's the time to push back from the table and ask ourselves, 'Is it really time to trust the people that we're negotiating with, the Iranians?' So I would encourage the administration, let's take more time. Let's not hasten to a deal."
But on ABC's "This Week," House Speaker John Earnest threw cold water on the idea.
"We've been negotiating for more than a year, and ultimately it's time for the Iranians to send a clear signal to the international community about whether or not they are willing to make the serious commitments required, and basically live up to their rhetoric, that they are not trying to acquire a nuclear weapon," he said. "If they can make those commitments, they should be able to do that by the end of March."
He reiterated President Obama's position that diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Earnest also responded to Boehner's comments during a press conference last week when he said the world was "starving for American leadership" but that the country has "an anti-war president" with no strategy to deal with the growing terrorist threat.
"I will simply say that if John Boehner thinks that U.S. troops should be on the ground in Yemen fighting the Houthis, or that we should re-occupy Iraq, or that the United States should bomb Iran to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon, then he should have the courage of his convictions to actually say so," Earnest said. "The fact is, the president at every turn has taken steps by building the international community support for policies that actually are in the best interests of the United States. And whether that's bringing the international community to the negotiating table, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, or building a coalition of more than 60 countries, including a large number of Arab countries, to launch air strikes against [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria], to try to eliminate the extremist threat that exists in the Middle East, these are steps that the president has taken consistent with our national interests.
"I think the animosity exhibited by our administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible. And I think that the pressure that they have 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," Boehner said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.
Boehner was asked specifically about Netanyahu's comments just before Israel's elections earlier this month, that a Palestinian state would not be established if he were reelected. It was a reversal from his previous position, and although the prime minister later backtracked from his comments, the White House continues to express skepticism about his intentions.President Obama said last week that the current tensions between the U.S. and Israel are not the result of a personality clash between himself and Netanyahu, but rather a "real knotty policy difference" that affects U.S.-Israeli relations.
But Boehner said Sunday the real problem is that Netanyahu's comments were justified given the current situation.
"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 is vowing to wipe you off the face of the earth?" Boehner said. "Until there's a ... partner willing to sit down and have peace talks, I think it's irrelevant whether we're talking about a two-state solution."
Boehner added that he believes a Palestinian state is an "inspirational goal" and that he backs a two-state solution "as long as you have got a willing partner willing to hold up their end of their deal."
Asked whether his invitation to Netanyahu to speak before Congress without consulting the White House had contributed to the breakdown in relations, Boehner said he was just trying to ensure that the American people and Congress "heard about the serious threat that Iran poses not only to the Middle East, but for the rest of the world, including the United States."
"The president doesn't want to talk about it. He doesn't want to talk about the threat of radical Islam and the fact that he has no strategy to deal with it. And when you begin to see all these leaks that have -- that probably came out of the White House in terms of what the Iranian deal was starting to shape up to be, there's a lot of concern in Congress on a bipartisan basis," Boehner said.The leaks about the ongoing negotiations - which are supposed to wrap up at the end of the month - prompted Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, and California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, to suggest on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the negotiation deadline be extended once again.
"Clearly, with a deadline of Tuesday, I'm concerned with what we might give away. The Iranians don't seem to want to conclude this," Burr said. "I think now's the time to push back from the table and ask ourselves, 'Is it really time to trust the people that we're negotiating with, the Iranians?' So I would encourage the administration, let's take more time. Let's not hasten to a deal."
But on ABC's "This Week," House Speaker John Earnest threw cold water on the idea.
"We've been negotiating for more than a year, and ultimately it's time for the Iranians to send a clear signal to the international community about whether or not they are willing to make the serious commitments required, and basically live up to their rhetoric, that they are not trying to acquire a nuclear weapon," he said. "If they can make those commitments, they should be able to do that by the end of March."
He reiterated President Obama's position that diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Earnest also responded to Boehner's comments during a press conference last week when he said the world was "starving for American leadership" but that the country has "an anti-war president" with no strategy to deal with the growing terrorist threat.
"I will simply say that if John Boehner thinks that U.S. troops should be on the ground in Yemen fighting the Houthis, or that we should re-occupy Iraq, or that the United States should bomb Iran to prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon, then he should have the courage of his convictions to actually say so," Earnest said. "The fact is, the president at every turn has taken steps by building the international community support for policies that actually are in the best interests of the United States. And whether that's bringing the international community to the negotiating table, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, or building a coalition of more than 60 countries, including a large number of Arab countries, to launch air strikes against [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria], to try to eliminate the extremist threat that exists in the Middle East, these are steps that the president has taken consistent with our national interests.
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