Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) is the latest Democrat to say that he won’t attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Iran next month, according to multiple reports.
Schatz (D-HI) wont attend Netanyahu speech, per statement, “because it does more harm than good to the bipartisan U.S.-Israel alliance.”
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) February 10, 2015
According to the Associated Press, Schatz also said that House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu, extended without consulting the White House, had been made with “the apparent purpose of undermining President Obama’s foreign policy prerogatives.”
Schatz joins Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in skipping the speech. Three House Democrats have also said they will boycott it, and dozens of others are reportedly considering it. Vice President Joe Biden will not attend the speech because, his office says, he will be traveling abroad.
Drip, drip, drip…Really happy to see a Jewish Dem step up on this. I’m guessing that more than a few of them may have at least one family member who might make things uncomfortable – in our family it’s my elderly uncle, who just can’t handle any criticism of Israel – but this is really important, for the precedent it would set here and for Israel’s own future (coddling their right-wingers has endangered their survival quite long enough). Hope more can follow.
I hope any Jews here have already contacted their Dem reps about this; the non-Jewish ones need to know where most of us stand, and it isn’t with Bibi. And if you haven’t yet, call your nearest Israeli consulate and voice your outrage about this political stunt; the last thing Israel needs is to become a partisan issue here. (Those calls are reportedly having a real impact back in the home office.) And finally, if you want an effective counterweight to AIPAC, look into J Street – the more support they can show, the greater their influence will be.
[Apologies for the recycling in this comment…]
Drip. Drip. Drip.They really are rolling this out much the same as they did with filibuster reform. I know they can’t admit this is a concerted effort, but it seems pretty obvious to me that’s what this is. The real tell will be when Northeastern Democratic Senators begin announcing their intent to boycott.
More please…
Looks like we are going to need some Viagra for Bibi’s Boehner.
The critics are screaming “anti-Semite” because that’s pretty much their only play right now. This has nothing at all to do with anti-Semitism.