WarSclerotic

Israel Hayom | Poll: 42% of Americans support Netanyahu’s speech in Congress.

Nearly half of Americans believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should accept his invitation to speak before Congress on March 3, even if U.S. President Barack Obama opposes the idea, according to a poll released by Rasmussen Reports this week.

According to the poll results, 42 percent agree that “Netanyahu should accept Republican congressional leaders’ invitation to address Congress about Iran even if President Obama does not want him to come,” while 35 percent disagree and 23 percent remain undecided.

Netanyahu said on Thursday it was his obligation to speak before Congress, despite protests from the White House, due to the gravity of the threat posed to Israel by a bad nuclear deal with Iran.

“Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the nuclear talks with the world powers are progressing in the path Iran has planned,” Netanyahu said.

“That path leads Iran to becoming a nuclear threshold state with international approval, and all the economic relief. This means Iran will be relieved from all pressure and will be able to arm itself with nuclear bombs. This is very dangerous for Israel, for the region, for peace and for the entire world, and it is my duty as prime minister of Israel to warn of this danger and do everything I can to prevent it from happening.”

Government officials noted on Thursday that while the White House has been portraying itself as “offended” by Netanyahu being invited to Congress without notifying the U.S. president, Obama himself opted to “speak directly to the Israeli people” during his visit to Israel. Obama chose to speak at the Jerusalem International Convention Center instead of the Knesset, Israel’s official house of representatives, despite the Israeli government and Knesset’s lobbying for him to do so.

In a sign of a possible low turnout for Netanyahu’s speech, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said she was planning to attend the speech, but would not commit to being there.

“It is really sad that it has come to this,” Pelosi said Thursday after a meeting with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein in Washington. “As of now, it is my intention to go. It’s still my hope that the event [does] not take place.”

Pelosi said she did not know what the turnout for the speech would be, as Congress members will be busy with their regular duties. The White House also refused to say whether Vice President Joe Biden, who is president of the U.S. Senate, will attend the speech.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State John Kerry is slated to meet with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Munich on Saturday.

This entry was posted on February 6, 2015 at 5:11 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.