Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a Republican US Senate delegation led by Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Thursday at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Netanyahu told Senator McConnell that it was good to see him and that he was a true friend of Israel. The Prime Minister added that he sincerely appreciated the fact that the Senator and his colleagues – some of whom he has known for many years – were among Israel's best friends.
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides also attended the meeting.
Relations between Israel and the US have been strained of late due to comments made by US officials regarding Israel's domestic policy, specifically its judicial reform bill, and after the latter supported a UN Security Council statement expressing its "dismay" over Jewish settlement activity in Judea and Samaria. The statement, which received the support of all 15 members of the Security Council, including the US, reads: “The Security Council reiterates that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-state solution.”