Benjamin Netanyahu, one presumes, has a keen sense of history. Therefore, Israel's Prime Minister might reflect on what happened when an earlier best friend of the United States overstepped the diplomatic bounds.

Back in 1793, at the height of the French revolution, Edmond Genet arrived as the new French ambassador to the US, with instructions to get the country that France had helped to independence barely a decade earlier to take its side in the gathering conflict with Britain. The self-styled “Citoyen Genet", however, went about his task too enthusiastically, scorning President George Washington's declaration of American neutrality, and going over the head of the government to foment popular support for his cause. The result was a massive

diplomatic crisis, in which even Washington's foes, basically sympathetic to Genet's cause, rallied to the president's support, and the ambassador came within an ace of being expelled.

History, as Mark Twain noted, doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. So skip forward 222 years. This time it's not Israel's ambassador but the country's very leader who's coming to Washington in March to inject himself directly into US politics and press for tougher US action to ward off a nuclear Iran. The result: another diplomatic crisis, this time between America and its one true friend in the Middle East.

It's no secret that no love is lost between the current US President and Netanyahu. Indeed, open loathing might be a better term. Barack Obama's six years in office have been marked by a succession of spats and snubs: from Israel's

announcement of new settlements in East Jerusalem at the very moment Vice-President Biden was on a 2010 visit to plead for a settlement slowdown, to the time Obama walked out of a working dinner with Netanyahu,

and the occasion in 2011 when the Prime Minister, answering reporters’ questions in the Oval Office, delivered his host a condescending lecture on Israeli history as Obama visibly seethed alongside him.

But the latest row, born of Netanyahu's acceptance of an

invitation from House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of Congress on the menace of Iran, could take the biscuit. The ploy was cooked up by Boehner and Ron Dermer, Israel's ambassador to Washington, with no word to the White House. Not surprisingly, the White House was incandescent with rage, making clear Obama would not meet Netanyahu during the latter's stay.

Normally, Netanyahu wouldn't have the slightest problem on Capitol Hill, overwhelmingly supportive of the Israeli cause. Assuming the address goes ahead, it would be his third to Congress. On his last one, in May 2011, he received 29 standing ovations.

This time, however, the usual routine may not apply. Netanyahu will calculate that the dust will settle and the relationship will continue as always. And he's right; the symmetry of interests between

Israel and the US are too compelling, the ties too instinctive. But Obama will be President for two more years, and Americans are rallying round him: not just Democrats, obliged to choose between supporting one of their own in the White House and back-ing Netanyahu's demand for immediate new sanctions, but many Republicans as well. Even Fox News disapproves of the planned speech.

This proves that even in a time of polarisation, political bipartisanship is not dead. Until now, unquestioning support for Israel was one thing on which everyone agreed. Now, they discover, they agree on something else - that no foreign leader should make a humiliating end-run around the president of the United States.

Edmond Genfit learnt that lesson in 1793. Netanyahu is learning it now.