January 11, 2013

 WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the minority leader in the U.S. Senate, said in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. and Israeli agendas in the Middle East were identical.

Netanyahu met Friday with McConnell, who was leading a group of senators on an Israel tour.

“As everybody in Israel knows, there are a lot of things we disagree on in America, we’ve had big battles over deficit and debt, but there’s broad bi-partisan support for Israel, and our agenda in this part of the world is the same as your agenda,” McConnell said, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.

Netanyahu thanked the senators and said his major priority, should he win reelection in Jan. 22 Knesset elections, would be ” to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons.”

The statement from Netanyahu’s office did not say who else was in McConnell’s group. Other senators known to be in Israel this week include McConnell’s fellow Republican Kentuckian, Sen. Rand Paul, and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).

Help us tell the Jewish story with reporting from around the world. Please donate to JTA.

Click to write a letter to the editor.

This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.