House Speaker John Boehner’s office said in a statement Monday that his office is receiving “ten times the number of requests for tickets than there are seats available in the gallery” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress.
Boehner will welcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Capitol on Tuesday by giving him a bust of Winston Churchill.
According to the speaker’s office, Netanyahu and Churchill are the only foreign leaders to deliver a speech to a joint meeting of Congress on three different occasions. Although a small contingent of Democrats, including President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, will not be attending the joint meeting, demand for tickets to the gallery and other viewing locations in the Capitol is high. Such demand for tickets usually happens for events like the president’s State of the Union.
The speaker’s office stated, “Given the ties between America and Israel, it’s no surprise that interest in attending the speech is high. We’ve had 10 times the number of requests for tickets than there are seats available in the gallery. In fact, demand is so overwhelming that both the House and Senate have set up separate viewing locations, which are also ticketed events.”
Netanyahu delivered a speech to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday and addressed the bitterness his visit is receiving from some members of the president’s party, as well as the president himself.
“My speech is not intended to show any disrespect to President Obama or the esteemed office that he holds,” Netanyahu told the estimated 16,000 people at AIPAC. “I have great respect for both.”
He explained, “The last thing anyone who cares about Israel, the last thing that I would want, is for Israel to become a partisan issue, and I regret that some people have misperceived my visit here this week as doing that. Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. Israel should always remain a bipartisan issue.”
Boehner will gavel the joint meeting to order, and several dignitaries will be presented before the prime minister. Netanyahu will be with an escort committee made up of Republicans and Democrats. Attendees at Netanyahu’s speech will include members of Congress from both parties, as well as guests in the gallery. Boehner’s guests include former speaker Newt Gingrich and Elie Wiesel, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Gold Medal.