US Congress faces growing calls to withdraw Netanyahu invitation: ‘a terrible mistake’

Notable Israelis add their voices to oppose invite extended by Mike Johnson, which Democrats plan to boycott

A group of prominent Israelis - including a former prime minister and an ex-head of Mossad, the foreign intelligence service - have added their voices to the growing domestic calls in the US for Congress to withdraw its invitation to Benjamin Netanyahu to address it next month, calling the move a terrible mistake".

The plea, in an op-ed article in the New York Times, argues that the invitation rewards Netanyahu, Israel's current prime minister, for scandalous and destructive conduct", including intelligence failures that led to last October's deadly Hamas attack and the ensuing bloody war in Gaza which shows no sign of ending.