Today at 2 pm Eastern, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing a joint session of Congress during one of the most fraught moments in his country's history.
President Joe Biden will not be in attendance or meeting with Netanyahu today, despite the fact that he is apparently well enough to give an Oval Office address this evening. Similarly, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and current Vice President Kamala Harris will not attend the address or meet with the Prime Minister privately afterward. She is reportedly too busy heading out to hit the campaign trail and do some fundraising in the "blue wall" states.
This is an outrageous slap in the face this is to our ally, and I clearly wasn't the only one to think so. Speaker Mike Johnson called Harris' decision "unconscionable."
As the New York Post points out, this is a case of history repeating itself. The last time Bibi Netanyahu addressed Congress was in 2015 when Joe Biden was Vice President. He skipped that address also.
History is repeating itself on Capitol Hill.House Speaker Mike Johnson slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’ “unconscionable” decision to skip Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Wednesday — much like President Biden did during the Israeli prime minister’s last speech to US lawmakers in 2015.“President Biden, who was the vice president at the time, skipped that address just as our current vice president will be boycotting the speech,” Johnson (R-La.) told The Post in an interview on the eve of Netanyahu’s speech.“I believe that’s unconscionable,” said Johnson.
Johnson also pushed back on Democrats who have been saying that Netanyahu's visit is a "desperate stunt" to receive more foreign aid from the United States. He pointed out that Bibi didn't request the invitation. Johnson invited him personally. He said that he first tried to request Netanyahu to come in the spring, but he couldn't get the cooperation of Chuck Schumer. When Schumer finally assented, the process moved forward as it usually does.
So where will Kamala Harris be instead? She accepted an invitation to speak at the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority’s “Grand Boule” in Indianapolis. That's clearly a much higher priority and a hotspot being watched by the entire world. And it's not even Harris' sorority. (She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha.) Kamala will still reportedly meet with Netanyahu later this week when she returns to Washington and Bibi said he was "looking forward to it." But that's hardly the same as an address before Congress that the entire world will be watching, including both our allies and our adversaries.
Therein lies the problem with this rather historic snub. Harris has already made it clear that she sides with the pro-Hamas wing of her party, or at least she's willing to pretend to in an effort to garner a few more votes in Minnesota and Michigan. Joe Biden did the same. Both are making it clear to the rest of the world that they don't consider Netanyahu a priority. This gives courage to our allies who remain critical of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and our adversaries who openly side with Hamas.
The remaining question, while we wait for the address to begin, is how widespread the dogpile will be. I previously asked whether the Democrats in the chamber would show enough restraint to treat their guest decently or whether they would turn the event into a pro-Hamas protest. Let's just say that I'm not allowing myself to get my hopes up too high. Speaker Johnson has threatened to order the Sargeant at Arms to arrest any members who "get out of hand." But that's constitutionally problematic, to say the least, so it almost certainly won't happen. The threat might even backfire because, at least when it comes to The Squad, they would probably love nothing more than to be led away in handcuffs because of the photo op it would provide for them, along with a chance to try to bring charges against the Speaker.
