Netanyahu leaps into the fray

The Israeli prime minister’s joint address to Congress exposed bitter divisions between the parties, as Democrats feel pitted between the GOP, Israeli politics and Obama

Standing in front of two Republicans because the White House did not send Vice President Joe Biden, as is typical for joint sessions of Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lamented to lawmakers that his speech was being construed as partisan.

“I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political,” Netanyahu told a joint session of Congress Tuesday.

Regrets aside, Netanyahu’s appearance before Congress was indeed political, both in America and internationally. Approximately 40 congressional Democrats, including the most tenured Senate Democrat, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine of Virginia, opted to skip the speech, which was scheduled in coordination with Speaker John Boehner’s office, without input from the Obama administration and just two weeks ahead of Israeli elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of the United States Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol March 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. During his speech, Netanyah said, Today the Jewish people face yet another attempt by another Persian potentate to destroy us. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of the United States Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol March 3, 2015 in Washington, DC. During his speech, Netanyah said, Today the Jewish people face yet another attempt by another Persian potentate to destroy us. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

 

“The unfortunate way that House leaders have unilaterally arranged this, and then heavily politicized it, has demolished the potential constructive value of this Joint Meeting,” Leahy said in a statement explaining his absence from the speech.

As with any joint address to Congress, such as the annual State of the Union, the optics of Netanyahu’s speech were just as important as the speech itself, if not more so, and the optics of applauding a foreign politician who circumvented the American president were complicated for Democrats and welcomed by Republicans, who have feuded with President Barack Obama on domestic and international policy.

Leading up to the speech, Democrats said they had private talks with members planning to attend the address about how to handle Netanyahu’s appearance. “They’ve centered around ensuring that the partisanship that’s seeped into the U.S.-Israel relationship after the Boehner invitation and the ensuing back-and-forth doesn’t get any worse as a result of the speech,” said one Senate Democratic aide on conversations leading up to the prime minister’s appearance.

But if there were any warnings to members to give Netanyahu a more tepid response than usual, they did not show Tuesday morning, when the prime minister received the first of many uproarious, bipartisan standing ovations upon entering the House chamber. Prominent Democratic leaders, such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and No. 4 Senate Democrat Patty Murray of Washington, lined the aisle of the House to glad-hand with Netanyahu in front of the cameras.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 3, 2015. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) addresses a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 3, 2015. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)

No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of Obama’s closest allies in Congress, explained on the Senate floor why he would attend the speech.

“I am going to attend it, primarily because of my respect for the state of Israel, the fact that throughout my public career in the House and Senate I have valued the bipartisan support of Israel, which I found in both the House and the Senate,” Durbin said.

His comments underscored the political struggle of the decision to attend: How would Democratic lawmakers demonstrate their support for Israel while not appearing to endorse Netanyahu’s perceived undermining of Obama? It’s hardly an academic question for lawmakers who benefit from the fundraising largesse of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent more than $3 million in 2014 alone on lobbying costs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Pro-Israel lobbies spent $12 million in U.S. congressional elections in that same year, divided almost equally between the parties.

Some Democrats on Tuesday cited the ongoing, sensitive nuclear negotiations with Iran as a reason to attend. One of the festering tensions between Capitol Hill and the White House over the Iran issue is just how big a role Congress should play in the shaping and approval of a deal.

Top Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) have been working on their own bill to add new sanctions to those the administration already has in place. Obama officials believe such a move will undermine the highly delicate negotiations currently underway with Tehran.

Congressional Democrats are also defending their institutional prerogatives regarding any Iran deal. Durbin said Tuesday that “any congressionally imposed sanctions will require congressional action to suspend them, so ultimately Congress has the last word on sanctions we have put into law.”

Meanwhile, Republicans felt no need to justify their attendance Tuesday. In fact, they were likely relieved to have an opportunity to show party unity at the very time their caucus has been riven by the fight over funding the Department of Homeland Security.

The speaker’s office played up the popularity and demand for tickets to the speech, with Boehner spokesman Michael Steel saying that “the demand for tickets — from both Republicans and Democrats — is unprecedented, and has far outweighed their availability.” The messaging from the speaker’s office smacked of an effort to both galvanize his party and to thumb its nose at the president, two dynamics not unrelated to each other.

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