Boehner mocks administration reaction to Israeli election
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The leader of the US House of Representatives on Thursday defended his invitation to Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress earlier this month and mocked the Obama administration's chilly reaction to the Israeli prime minister's election victory.
Asked by a reporter about the administration lukewarm response to Netanyahu's win, Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, said, "Lukewarm?" and laughed heartily.
Since Netanyahu's election triumph this week, the White House has said it will have to reconsider its approach considering the prime minister's hard veer to the right in the campaign.
Boehner said he wanted to congratulate "my friend, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his party's victory this week."
He said Netanyahu recognizes "the grave threats that we face from radical Islam and from Iran." He said the prime minister "was in the perfect position to help describe that threat to the American people and, for that matter, to the rest of the world."
