The organisation, which claims to be apolitical, was created last year to push Netanyahu forward on a regional peace agreement aimed at ending the conflict with the Palestinians.
It is not certain how many members of Israel's defence and intelligence establishment oppose the speech. Members of the group said they shared Netanyahu's fears about Tehran's nuclear project and the pending deal to freeze and monitor the Iranian programme. But they said Netanyahu was making a mistake to confront US President Barack Obama in a speech before Congress.
Amiram Levin, another ex-commander and a former deputy chief of Mossad, said that Netanyahu was playing into the hands of Iran's hardline clerics. "The American people see the rift between Israel and the US Administration. The Israeli public sees it, and, more importantly, the mullahs in Iran see it. Iran wants Netanyahu's speech. They understand that it will weaken Israel's bipartisan bond with the US," Levin said.
Netanyahu's party, Likud, responded to the criticism: "This is a recycled version of the same generals - leftists who promised peace in Oslo, supported the disengagement [from Gaza], supported the Arab Peace Initiative based on dividing Jerusalem, and promoted withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights."
Judea and Samaria are the biblical names for today's occupied West Bank.
The Israeli Prime Minister has warned that the accord being formulated is a bad deal that will allow the Iranian regime to become a nuclear state, posing an existential threat to Israel.
Netanyahu called his trip to Washington "a fateful, even historic mission" that he is undertaking as "the emissary of all Israelis, even those who disagree with me, of the entire Jewish people". Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein knocked Netanyahu for suggesting that he represents all Jewish people on the topic of Iran.
"He doesn't speak for me on this," Feinstein said. "I think it's a rather arrogant statement. I think the Jewish community is like any other community. There are different points of view. I think that arrogance does not befit Israel, candidly."
Secretary of State John Kerry sought to play down the tensions around the speech. He said: "The Prime Minister is welcome in the US at any time. We have an unparalleled close security relationship with Israel, and we will continue to." Kerry conceded that the invitation by Republican House Speaker John Boehne had caught the Administration by surprise. "We don't want to see this turned into some great political football," he said.
- Washington Post-Bloomberg
