Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein (D – Calif.) and Dick Durbin (D – Ill.) invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a closed-door meeting next week when he is in Washington D.C. with the stated goal of “maintain[ing] Israel’s dialogue with both political parties in Congress,” The Times of Israel reported today.

The prime minister accepted an invitation last month from Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), the speaker of the US House of Representatives, to address Congress, but the White House complained that Boehner had not cleared the invitation with Obama or Democrats in Congress. …

Netanyahu insisted last week that the political furor over his upcoming speech should not cloud the issue of the looming nuclear deal between world powers and Iran that, in his opinion, will fail to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. …

Durbin, of Illinois, who is the assistant Democratic leader, and Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, have not said if they will attend the speech, but an aide noted that the proposed meeting was not intended to be an alternative to Netanyahu’s address. There was no immediate response from the Israeli embassy to their invitation.

Efforts to mobilize Democratic politicians against Netanyahu’s Congressional speech next week have been mostly unsuccessful.

Senator Chuck Schumer last week asked that his fellow Democratic politicians attend Netanyahu’s speech, “saying the Israel-US relationship should ‘transcend’ any political differences.”

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