Durbin: GOP inviting Israeli PM a ‘mistake’

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Sunday criticized Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the White House, calling it a “mistake.”

“I don’t think this political grandstanding by the Speaker and Mr. Netanyahu are in the best interest of Israel,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“I don’t want to show any weakness in terms of our commitment to Israel. But some of my closest friends in the United States who support Israel have described this Boehner strategy as a disaster. I hope we can find a way to stabilize this situation quickly and take the politics out of it.”

Democrats have panned Boehner’s decision as a provocation to the White House, which is currently in the midst of negotiating a deal with Iran to tamp down its nuclear program. But Republicans argue that they want to hear Netanyahu’s take on the situation, and that they share his concerns that the U.S. might concede too much in those negotiations.

Durbin also showed his support to the president’s strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. He said that Obama is on “the right track” and that a ground invasion would not be in America’s best interest.

“To plunge them into the chaos and carnage of Syria at this point would be a serious mistake in my view,” he said.

“Let’s work to build and support this coalition of indigenous efforts in the region to bring stability.”