Essentially the crux of the back-story is that Netanyahu contacted the White House about the invitation to talk to congress, prior to accepting the invitation; the White House never contacted Netanyahu back.  
Absent of the White House responding, and out of an abundance of caution to appearances, Netanyahu accepted the invitation.    Then whammo, the White House claims President Obama was disparaged.  It would appear the White House set up the narrative intentionally.  
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(Via WFB) The entire spat with the White House over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to speak to Congress was entirely manufactured by the White House.
The truth about the incident, in which the White House complained that it was terribly wrong for Netanyahu to accept House Speaker John Boehner’s (R., Ohio) invitation without first notifying the administration, was made evident by a correction added to a New York Times article that greatly changed the timeline of events that effected the situation.
Here’s the correction, added on Jan. 30, a day after the article was published:

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel accepted Speaker John A. Boehner’s invitation to address Congress. He accepted after the administration had been informed of the invitation, not before.

So the White House had actually already been informed that Netanyahu was invited to speak to Congress. The administration was in no way blindsided by the announcement, even though that is how they chose to frame it to the media.
The Times of Israel, which detailed the implications of the New York Times correction, explains that the White House said nothing until after Netanyahu accepted the invitation. (read more)

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