Senator meets with Netanyahu ahead of big speech

Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) traveled to Israel this week and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of his controversial address to Congress.

“I am eager to welcome and hear Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress next month, and I hope that continuous dialogue between our two nations will strengthen our relationship,” Perdue said in a statement Friday.

The visit marked Perdue’s first trip overseas as a senator and as a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

{mosads}Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) invitation for Netanyahu to speak before Congress on March 3 has divided lawmakers, with a growing number of Democrats saying they will skip the speech due to the way it was handled.

Neither President Obama nor Secretary of State John Kerry are expected to meet with the Israeli official during his trip to Washington, and a group of 23 liberal House Democrats on Thursday urged Boehner to delay Netanyahu’s speech.

Almost two-thirds of Americans think inviting Netanyahu to speak to Congress without notifying Obama was the wrong thing to do, according to a CNN/ORC International poll released Tuesday.

Despite the controversy, Netanyahu said he would travel to the United States because of an “obligation” to protect Israel.

“I am going to the United States not because I seek a confrontation with the president, but because I must fulfill my obligation to speak up on a matter that affects the very survival of my country,” he said in a statement earlier this month. “And I intend to speak in the US Congress because Congress might have an important role on a nuclear deal with Iran.”

Netanyahu is opposed to the ongoing talks with the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany (P5+1), and his comments during his meeting with Perdue likely offer a preview of his March speech.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is relentlessly pursuing nuclear weapons with the express purpose of destroying the state of Israel. The P5+1’s latest proposal won’t stop them,” he said. “The Iranians of course know the details of that proposal and Israel does to. So when we say that the current proposal would lead to a bad deal, a dangerous deal, we know what we’re talking about.”

“I’m open to hearing the positions and arguments of those who think differently, and I would hope that they would be open to hear the arguments of Israel as well.”