Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Wednesday said that he won’t attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next week due to the meeting’s proximity to the Israeli elections.
“As a long-time supporter of the U.S-Israel relationship, I believe the timing of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress — just days before Israeli elections — is highly inappropriate,” Kaine said in a statement to Roll Call. “There is no reason to schedule this speech before Israeli voters go to the polls on March 17 and choose their own leadership. I am disappointed that, as of now, the speech has not been postponed. For this reason, I will not attend the speech.”
Kaine said he sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) last month urging him to postpone the speech in order to avoid perceived favoritism in the Israeli elections.
“A number of respected Israeli national security and political leaders have criticized the address as improperly mixing American foreign policy with Israeli domestic politics. Creating such an impression is not only disrespectful to the Israeli electorate, it also undermines the institutional values that Congress should uphold,” Kaine wrote in the letter, according to Roll Call. “Just as we would resent another nation openly attempting to influence an American election, Congress should not give the appearance that we are engaging in such activity.”
Kaine joins a growing list of Senate and House Democrats who say they won’t attend the speech.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked Netanyahu to meet with the Senate Democratic caucus separately during his visit to Congress, however the Prime Minister rejected their invitation, arguing the meeting “could compound the misperception of partisanship.”
