Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer hosted a number Congressional Democrats for dinner last night, “to discuss the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran,” Politico reported yesterday.

Set up by New York Rep. Steve Israel, the dinner at the ambassador’s residence was a chance for the Democrats and Dermer to hold a “helpful dialogue” after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress earlier this month with a speech full of blistering criticism of the White House’s approach to Tehran.

Israel said Dermer expressed “interested in expanding and strengthening the dialogue” between Netanyahu’s government and Democrats following the speech and urged the lawmakers not to “lose perspective” about the strength of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. …

But Israel said the bulk of the conversation during dinner centered on the ongoing negotiations with Iran about the scope of its nuclear program. The Israeli government is not eager to see a deal with Iran while the Obama administration is still expressing hope that the negotiators, called the P5 + 1 group, can tamper the growth of nuclear facilities in Iran.

Other representatives who attended the dinner were Kathleen Rice (D – N.Y.), Ruben Gallego (D – Ariz.), Seth Moulton (D – Mass.) and Gwen Graham (D – Fla.). It was reportedly the first such dinner since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress earlier this month.

Politico further reported that White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, who spoke at the J Street conference yesterday, questioned Netanyahu’s commitment to the peace process and implicitly dismissed the prime minister’s concerns about the nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran as “an absolutist position [that] makes for good rhetoric.”

Last week a bipartisan letter written by Rep. Eliot Engel (D – N.Y.), which was signed by more than four fifths of the House of Representatives, urged a Congressional role in shaping a nuclear deal with Iran that would “foreclose any pathway to a bomb.”

At a Congressional committee hearing last week, Rep. Brad Sherman (D – Calif.) blasted the administration’s argument that Iran would abide by the terms of the deal currently being negotiated as “preposterous.”

[Photo: JerusalemCenter / YouTube ]