The highlight of Speaker McCarthy’s triumphant trip to Jerusalem this week was an invitation for Benjamin Netanyahu to address the House. The Republican was careful enough to say he was sure that the White House would invite the premier on the occasion of Israel’s 75th anniversary. Yet, Mr. McCarthy’s offer was a much needed effort to salve President Biden’s snub of Israel’s elected leader. 

Opining on Israel’s internal struggle over balancing judiciary and Knesset relations, Mr. Biden announced in March that “in the near term” he has no intention to invite Mr. Netanyahu to the White House. The president was heartened by applause from Israeli opponents of the proposed legislation to overhaul the judiciary system. Then again, Israel’s sworn enemies also rejoiced, sensing a fissure between Israel and its top ally. 

More than 100 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza on Wednesday alone. The perception that America and Israel are at odds emboldens Iran and its proxies. By so pointedly keeping Israel at arms’ length, Mr. Biden encourages that perception — even as his anti-Bibi salvo is explained as “friends give friends advice and counsel.” That was what the ranking Democrat on the Jerusalem trip, Congressman Steny Hoyer, told reporters Monday. 

Mr. Hoyer used the example of Mr. Neatnyahu’s address in 2015 to a bicameral Congressional session. That speech, in opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, has long been wrongly described as a foreign interference in American affairs. Israel sees any move involving a regime that strives to erase it off the map as existential. The debate over Israel’s judiciary, in contrast, is an internal affair on which Mr. Biden deserves no say.   

Creating “space” between Israel and America was a strategy advanced by President Obama. His vice president, on the other hand, has long been considered an ally by Israelis. Mr. Biden often says he’s known Mr. Netanyahu for decades, and the premier, too, professes a long friendship with the president. It is, though, increasingly like a British parliamentarian calling a bitter enemy “my right honorable friend.”

We have long argued that the most dangerous territory in the Middle East is that between the White House and the Congress. Mr. Netanyahu, though, has braved it better than any premier (only Churchill has addressed a joint meeting of Congress as many times as Mr. Netanyahu). The territory between the Biden White House and Congress is even more dangerous than usual, as Iran races to obtain A-bomb to use against the Jewish state.

This is the context in which Mr. Biden is turning Israel into a political football. Always a politico first, statesman last, he is all too blase about this battle. As Mr. Avni reports, Israelis of all stripes are concerned about the erosion of support for their country among Democrats. Mr. McCarthy’s invitation, following his well-received address to the Knesset, is an attempt to reunite the Congressional aisles in support of our closest ally. It would be good for Congress to hear from Mr. Netanyahu before the next election.