U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced on Monday that he is postponing his planned address to Israel’s parliament, which was set for June 22.
“Due to the complex situation currently unfolding in Iran and Israel, Speaker Ohana and I have made the decision to postpone the special session of the Knesset,” Johnson wrote, referring to his counterpart, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
“We look forward to rescheduling the address in the near future and send our prayers to the people of Israel and the Middle East,” he stated.
Johnson announced on June 11—two days before Israel launched its strikes against Iran—that he would address a special session of the Knesset.
“It will be one of the highest honors of my life to address the Israeli Knesset at this fateful moment,” Johnson wrote at the time. “Our ties run deeper than military partnerships and trade agreements. We’re bound by the same beliefs, the same psalms, and the same sacred pursuit of liberty.”
He added that Israel and Jews worldwide “face grave threats, and it is our moral imperative to stand by our sister democracy. As terror and vile antisemitic ideology threaten Western Civilization, Israel must know that when America said, ‘Never Again,’ we meant it.”
A rescheduled date has not been announced.
