Intelligence leaders warn against speech

There are fears Benjamin Netanyahu could severely damage US-Israeli relations.

Former leaders of Israel’s security and intelligence establishment have told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he risks the safety of the country if he proceeds with a speech to the US Congress tomorrow about Iran’s nuclear programme.

They fear he will inflict irreparable damage to relations with Israel’s most enduring ally, and have called on him ‘‘to stop before it is too late’’.

The group, made up of nearly 200 retired commanders, mounted the attack on Netanyahu as he prepared to set off on a trip that has already angered the White House and sparked the worst rupture in US-Israeli relations in decades. ‘‘We believe that this poses a clear and present danger to the security of the state of Israel,’’ General Amnon Reshef said. ‘‘The American and Israeli people see the rift Netanyahu created with the administration.’’

Netanyahu was invited to speak to Congress by Republican Speaker John Boehner, without consulting the White House.

More than a dozen Democrats have said they will boycott the speech, and US President Barack Obama will not meet the Israeli leader. The White House said that such a meeting would be inappropriate, with Israeli elections due on March 17 – and it has ensured that vice-president Joe Biden will be unavailable. He is being sent on a trip to Latin America.

Netanyahu was unapologetic as he boarded his airliner yesterday. ‘‘I am leaving for Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission,’’ he said. ‘‘I feel that I am the emissary of all Israelis, even those who disagree with me, [and] of the entire Jewish people.’’

He faces a close election, with his conservative Likud party neck-and-neck in the polls with the Centre-Left. His opponents have accused him of poisoning relations with the US.

Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, said last week the speech would be ‘‘destructive to the fabric’’ of America’s relationship with Israel.

Netanyahu’s allies in the US widened the rift during the weekend with two harsh personal attacks on Democratic officials. The Emergency Committee for Israel, a far-Right pressure group, released a television advert attacking Hillary Clinton, a likely 2016 presidential candidate. It faulted her for not publicly backing Netanyahu.

Shmuley Boteach, a rabbi and failed congressional candidate, took out a fullpage ad in the New York Times. ‘‘Susan Rice has a blind spot: genocide,’’ it said. ‘‘Both the Jewish people’s and Rwanda’s.’’