Standing aside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledged “ironclad” support for the Jewish state on Friday.
“As Prime Minister Netanyahu said Tuesday at the White House, when our enemies see daylight between Israel and the United States, they will exploit it,” Johnson said following a closed-door meeting with the prime minister. “We all know that is true, and that’s why strong, decisive leadership is so crucial in this time.”
Originally scheduled for Thursday, the meeting was postponed due to budget talks at the White House with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Following Johnson’s remarks, Netanyahu also talked about the close relationship between the United States and Israel, which he said was only reinforced during his visit this week, including his meeting at the White House with Trump.
“I was deeply moved by the reception that we got, the substantive things that we discussed—making sure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon and also making sure Hamas is destroyed,” Netanyahu said. “We’re not going to have a future for Gaza or a future for peace in our part of the world if Hamas remains there.”
“It sets the tone for this great strengthening of the American-Israeli alliance,” he added. “It’s not only an alliance between governments. It’s an alliance between peoples.”
Netanyahu also thanked Trump for releasing the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that then-President Joe Biden held up last year over, he said, worries about civilian casualties, even as he approved a new $8 billion sale of weapons to Israel last month.
The Israeli prime minister said that he has developed a “very warm personal bond” with Johnson and invited the House speaker to come to Israel. “This year in Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said.
Johnson said that the first measure under his leadership that passed the House was a resolution that reaffirmed the American commitment to Israel’s security.
Congress also approved a new aid package for Israel last April, but not before Johnson initially insisted that the bill also cut billions of dollars in funding for the Internal Revenue Service to increase audits of wealthy taxpayers. That provision never made it into the final $95 billion legislation that also included funding for Ukraine and Taiwan.
