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Boehner: Obama treatment of Netanyahu ‘reprehensible’

by Jesse Byrnes - 03/29/15 9:58 AM ET

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) condemned President Obama on Sunday for his treatment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I think the animosity exhibited by our administration toward the prime minister of Israel is reprehensible,” Boehner said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

{mosads}”And I think the pressure 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,” Boehner added.

Boehner’s remarks came when asked about criticism from Obama and the White House over Netanyahu’s pre-election comments on the Palestinian state and Arab Israeli citizens.

Boehner, who invited Netanyahu to address Congress on March 3 without first informing the White House, argued that the U.S.-Israeli relationship — and the relationship between Congress and Israel — had been strengthened in recent months.

He maintained Sunday the speech was intended only to highlight the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, though many viewed the speech as an affront to the Obama administration’s push to secure a deal over Tehran’s program. Those talks face a March 31 deadline.

The Speaker travels to Israel this week for a trip he said was planned months ago, before Netanyahu’s address to Congress. However, he said he has no plans to speak to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

“I don’t need all the fanfare,” he told CNN.

Tags Benjamin Netanyahu Iran Israel Sunday shows