U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson will travel to Israel to address the parliament on June 22, he said on Wednesday. "Our ties run deeper than military partnerships and trade agreements," Johnson said in an emailed statement.
Punchbowl News, which first reported Johnson's plan, said the House Speaker was expected to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem during the trip. Johnson did not provide further details on the planned trip.
"This will be one of the greatest honors of my life," said Johnson, who is coming to Israel at the invitation of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohan
Ohana said Johnson is one of the greatest friends Israel and the Jewish people have. "From the moment he was elected, he not only expressed his support in words but also acted, at a risk to his job, to help Israel in its darkest hours," he said.
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Johnson announced the visit as Israel presses on with its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, more than 20 months after it launched its offensive there in response to the Hamas massacre of October 7. He will become the third House speaker in the history of Israel-United States relations to address a plenary session, after Newt Gingrich in 1998 and Kevin McCarthy in 2023. A few months after the October 7 attack, Johnson invited Knesset Speaker Ohana for an official visit to Capitol Hill.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and House Speaker Mike Johnson
(Photo: Oliver Contreras / AFP)
"Our ties go deeper than military partnerships and trade agreements. We are connected by the same beliefs, the same chapters of Psalms, and the same sacred pursuit of liberty,” Johnson said in the statement. “Today, the State of Israel and the Jewish people around the world are facing serious threats, and it is our moral duty to stand by our democratic sister. As terrorism and the vile anti-Semitic ideology threaten Western civilization, Israel must know that when America said ‘never again,’ we meant it.”
On Tuesday, Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Norway imposed sanctions on far-right Israeli Cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israel called the action "outrageous" and said the Israeli government would hold a meeting early next week to decide how to respond.