US President Barack Obama
US President Barack ObamaReuters

Senior political analyst Brit Hume spoke on Fox News this weekend about the uproar surrounding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's impending speech before the United States Congress. 

According to Hume, the situation is a "regular mess, which possibly could have been avoided if the Speaker of the House of Representatives had notified the White House of the invitation."

John Boehner raised eyebrows two weeks ago when he announced that Netanyahu had accepted his invitation to address a rare joint session of Congress – an invitation extended without consulting Democratic leaders in Congress or the White House.

Boehner defended the action, saying Congress has every right, as a separate branch of government, to operate without the administration's input.

Hume agreed that Boehner had the right to extend the invitation, just as Netanyahu had the right to accept it, but suggested that much of the fallout could have been prevented if Boehner had gone to US President Barack Obama's administration ahead of time.  

Addressing, the White House's purported response of "anger and fury" to Netanyahu's speech, Hume noted that "it's no secret the relationship between the President and Mr. Netanyahu has been tense and difficult" in the past. 

However, Hume criticized Obama for not taking the high road once the news of the invitation became publicized. 

"What needed to happen here... is the President kind of needed to put on his 'big boy pants' and say we'll welcome the Prime Minister to Washington and I'll look forward to meeting with him." 

Such a move "might have been from the President's point of view" and also more tactical. 

According to Hume, if Netanyahu knew that he would be meeting with Obama after his Congress speech, "he probably would have been a little loathe to even indirectly criticize the administration on Capitol Hill." 

Instead, the "President obviously got annoyed" and we are left with "not a particularly nice situation for US-Israel relations."