Rice, Power will attend pro-Israel gathering; Obama, Biden won’t

by Ian Swanson - 02/26/15 12:47 PM ET

The White House will send United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and national security adviser Susan Rice to speak at a prominent pro-Israel lobbying group’s annual event amid tensions over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s forthcoming address to Congress.

President Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry will all skip the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference, where administration officials and congressional leaders traditionally gather with supporters of Israel.

{mosads}The visit by Power and Rice is meant to send a signal of White House support for Israel, though either Kerry, Biden, or Obama represented the administration at the conference over the past three years.

“If it’s perceived by some as an effort to demonstrate bipartisan support for the relationship between the United States and Israel, the that would be great,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Thursday.

Earnest said that the appearance by Powers and Rice “is consistent with the kind of administration participation you’ve seen in previous AIPAC conferences.”

This year’s conference is shadowed by the political storm surrounding Netanyahu’s scheduled address to Congress on March 3.

The White House has panned the decision by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to invite Netanyahu without consulting the White House, and a number of congressional Democrats are skipping the speech.

Netanyahu, who is also speaking to AIPAC, is expected to blast the administration’s negotiations with Iran, which are intended to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu argues the talks could endanger Israel’s existence by allowing Iran to maintain enough of a program to develop nuclear weapons.

This week, Rice called the prime minister’s speech to Congress “destructive” to the Israeli-American relationship. The White House backed those comments during the daily press briefing Wednesday.