Obama sends reps to AIPAC before Netanyahu visit

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will send two top-level officials to a major pro-Israel lobbying conference this weekend on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress next week.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power will represent Obama at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan confirmed.

The White House had been non-committal about attending the conference this week, even after White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest confirmed Tuesday that administration officials had been formally invited.

Earnest said Thursday that Rice's and Power's speeches are "consistent with the kind of administration participation you've seen in previous AIPAC conferences."

"Certainly if it's perceived by some as an effort to demonstrate bipartisan support for the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, that would be great," Earnest said. He said the White House hoped to get back to a place where the relationship would no longer be "subjected to partisan turbulence."

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The AIPAC speeches will be a prelude to Netanyahu's visit, which the administration is boycotting because of scheduling conflicts and a concern over interfering in Israeli elections scheduled for March 17. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has invited Netanyahu to address Congress next Tuesday.

Rice said this week that Netanyahu's speech has "injected a degree of partisanship," into U.S.-Israeli relations. "I think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship," she told Charlie Rose on PBS.

Boehner said Thursday that he "couldn't disagree more."

"The American people and both parties in Congress have always stood with Israel. Nothing – and no one – should get in the way of that," Boehner said. But what is destructive, in my view, is making a bad deal that paves the way for a nuclear Iran."

Boehner's comments came in what has become an almost daily back-and-forth between congressional Republicans and the White House over the Israeli prime minister's visit.

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