Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on July 24 as Israel-Hamas war hits inflection point

WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress on July 24 in what is expected to be one of the most divisive speeches to lawmakers in recent memory as the Israel-Hamas war reaches an inflection point.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced the date Thursday evening after the congressional leaders formally invited Netanyahu to speak before Congress last week.

“The existential challenges we face, including the growing partnership between Iran, Russia, and China, threaten the security, peace, and prosperity of our countries and of free people around the world. To build on our enduring relationship and to highlight America’s solidarity with Israel, we invite you to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combatting terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region,” Johnson and McConnell, along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in the letter inviting Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s fourth speech to Congress will be the most times any foreign leader has delivered an address to a joint meeting of Congress, breaking a tie with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Israeli leader has served three nonconsecutive times and is the longest-serving prime minister in the country's history. Netanyahu also addressed Congress in 1996, 2011 and 2015.

“I am very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel before both Houses of Congress and to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world,” Netanyahu said in a statement accepting the invitation.

His visit is expected to be controversial given divides over Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza. Several progressive Democratic lawmakers are expected to skip the address, putting on full display the divides in President Joe Biden's party during an election year over the United States' wartime support of Israel as the civilian death toll in Gaza mounts.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history, who has been intensely critical of Netanyahu, said in a statement that while he has “clear and profound disagreements with the Prime Minister,” he signed on to the invitation “because America’s relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends on person or prime minister.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress on July 24