US House speaker in Knesset amid fraught US-Israel ties

By ILAN BEN ZION and TIA GOLDENBERG
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The U.S. House speaker has addressed Israel’s parliament, a rare honor awarded to the highest-ranking Republican in U.S. politics at a time of fraught relations between Israel’s government and Democratic President Joe Biden. Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu portrayed Monday’s speech as a nod to bipartisan U.S. support for Israel as it marks 75 years since its creation. Critics say the platform given to McCarthy — he’s only the second House speaker to address the Knesset, after Newt Gingrich in 1998 — is a pointed jab at Biden. McCarthy called on the president to extend Netanyahu an invitation to the White House, a courtesy thus far denied.