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Kevin McCarthy to address Israeli Knesset amid chill in relations between Biden and Netanyahu
WASHINGTON (JTA) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will address the Israeli Knesset on his upcoming trip to Israel — the second speaker of the house to address Israel’s parliament.
The announcement of McCarthy’s speech comes amid a chill in relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s controversial judicial overhaul plans and other policies. Three weeks ago, soon after Netanyahu announced a pause on the judicial reform, Biden said he wouldn’t be inviting him to the White House “in the near term.” Israeli prime ministers conventionally schedule a White House visit soon after they take office.
The invitation to McCarthy, the most senior Republican in Washington, D.C., appears to be a response to that snub. It also marks a return to a familiar Netanyahu tactic: turning to Republicans to fend off criticism from Democrats.
In a Hebrew-language video announcing McCarthy’s speech, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, a Netanyahu ally, called McCarthy a “real friend of Israel,” with a slight but discernible emphasis on the word “real.”
“I am pleased to announce that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, Kevin McCarthy, who is a real friend of Israel and has been for his entire career, has answered my invitation and will come visit us here in the Knesset in Israel,” Ohana, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said in a video released on social media. “I think this thing is a testament to the strong and unbreakable connection between Israel and its closest ally, the United States of America.”
McCarthy tweeted that his visit, which is part of a bipartisan delegation beginning April 30, days after Israel celebrates its 75th birthday, will be his first abroad as speaker. “The US-Israel relationship is as important as ever,” he wrote.
The last time a U.S. House of Representatives Speaker addressed the Knesset was in 1998, when Newt Gingrich led a similarly bipartisan delegation to mark Israel’s 50th anniversary.
Ohana mentioned that speech in his announcement, and it was a telling allusion: Gingrich, also a Republican, said during his visit that the president, Democrat Bill Clinton, should advance assistance to Israel without demanding concessions in talks with the Palestinians. The Israeli prime minister both then and now, Netanyahu, had infuriated Clinton at the time by cultivating Republican support in the United States as a countervailing force meant to keep Clinton from making demands on Israel.
Biden, like Clinton, is wary of Netanyahu’s commitment to working with the Palestinians, and has rebuked Netanyahu for his plans to expand settlements.
In 2007, Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic House speaker, was honored with a dinner at the Knesset, where she spoke, but she did not address the parliament’s plenary. Both Democratic and Republican presidents have also addressed the Knesset.
Netanyahu, for his part, has addressed the House of Representatives three times — all at moments when the chamber was controlled by Republicans and a Democrat was in the White House. The third of those speeches, in 2015, was seen as particularly offensive to then-President Barack Obama, who was finalizing a nuclear agreement with Iran that Netanyahu vehemently opposed.
This year, in the absence of a White House invitation, Netanyahu has tried to play down talk of a crisis. “There will be a visit, don’t worry,” he told reporters.
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The post Kevin McCarthy to address Israeli Knesset amid chill in relations between Biden and Netanyahu appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel’s Netanyahu Hopes to ‘Taper’ Israel Off US Military Aid in Next Decade
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade.
Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington.
“I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told The Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero,” he said: “Yes.”
Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.”
In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend 350 billion shekels ($110 billion) on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems.
Israeli defense exports rose 13 percent last year, with major contracts signed for Israeli defense technology including its advanced multi-layered aerial defense systems.
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Israel supporter and close ally of Trump, said on X that “we need not wait ten years” to begin scaling back military aid to Israel.
“The billions in taxpayer dollars that would be saved by expediting the termination of military aid to Israel will and should be plowed back into the US military,” Graham said. “I will be presenting a proposal to Israel and the Trump administration to dramatically expedite the timetable.”
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In Rare Messages from Iran, Protesters ask West for Help, Speak of ‘Very High’ Death Toll
Protests in Tehran. Photo: Iran Photo from social media used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law, via i24 News
i24 News – Speaking to Western media from beyond the nationwide internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime, Iranian protesters said they needed support amid a brutal crackdown.
“We’re standing up for a revolution, but we need help. Snipers have been stationed behind the Tajrish Arg area [a neighborhood in Tehran],” said a protester in Tehran speaking to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity. He added that “We saw hundreds of bodies.”
Another activist in Tehran spoke of witnessing security forces firing live ammunition at protesters resulting in a “very high” number killed.
On Friday, TIME magazine cited a Tehran doctor speaking on condition of anonymity that just six hospitals in the capital recorded at least 217 killed protesters, “most by live ammunition.”
Speaking to Reuters on Saturday, Setare Ghorbani, a French-Iranian national living in the suburbs of Paris, said that she became ill from worry for her friends inside Iran. She read out one of her friends’ last messages before losing contact: “I saw two government agents and they grabbed people, they fought so much, and I don’t know if they died or not.”
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Report: US Increasingly Regards Iran Protests as Having Potential to Overthrow Regime
United States President Donald J Trump in White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Thursday, December 18, 2025. Photo: Aaron Schwartz via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – The assessment in Washington of the strength and scope of the Iran protests has shifted after Thursday’s turnout, with US officials now inclined to grant the possibility that this could be a game changer, Axios reported on Friday.
“The protests are serious, and we will continue to monitor them,” an unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying in the report.
Iran was largely cut off from the outside world on Friday after the Islamic regime blacked out the internet to curb growing unrest, as videos circulating on social media showed buildings ablaze in anti-government protests raging across the country.
US President Donald Trump warned the Ayatollahs of a strong response if security forces escalate violence against protesters.
“We’re watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump told reporters when asked about the unrest in Iran.
The latest reported death toll is at 51 protesters, including nine children.