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WASHINGTON (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says that when the Israeli leader speaks to a joint session of Congress, he'll give House Speaker John Boehner a menorah and a copy of the story of Purim, a Jewish holiday being celebrated this week.
Purim commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire where a plot had been formed to destroy them, an account recorded in the Bible's book of Esther. The gift is symbolic in that Iran has vowed to annihilate Israel and Netanyahu will address the heightened threat if modern Persia develops nuclear weapons.
Boehner plans to give Netanyahu a bust of Winston Churchill, the only other foreign leader to have addressed Congress three separate times.
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