Mr. Netanyahu comes to Washington

Prior to his March 3 address to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be speaking on Monday morning to delegates at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference. I’m here in DC to cover the conference and have a few thoughts regarding the controversy over Netanyahu’s planned speech.

This is a wonderful opportunity for Congress to show courage, not just make a political decision but also a decision of conscience. Netanyahu, by his own account, is coming to Washington with one primary purpose in mind: to make the case against a nuclear “deal” with Iran that would allow that country to progress toward possession of nuclear weapons. The White House had asked Democratic legislators to boycott the speech. Certain Democrats have already come out and said they will observe no such boycott. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), whose remarks included the statement that he “will listen to all sides, and will not miss an opportunity to hear from the prime minister of one of America’s closest and most important allies,” will attend. So will Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).

A few thoughts.

The fact is, according to recent polls, a solid majority of Americans support Netanyahu’s coming to speak.

Many Americans also disagree with Obama’s foreign policy, especially with regard to the Mideast. Separation of powers is intrinsic to our system of government. Obama is President, not King. To air another point of view in Congress is not tantamount to disrespect.

Moreover, as President, Obama should respect the principle of open discussion and debate. If he is uncomfortable with Netanyahu’’s remarks, he could certainly make his own in response, though reports are a plan for him to do so was scuttled. Is it possible that was because he and his supporters realized he will not be able to make as compelling a case for his point of view as Israel’s Prime Minister will for his?

Final thought: those who believe Netanyahu is making this speech purely for political gain should recall that he was voted out of office in the early 1990’s for refusing to go along with the Oslo Peace Accords because he believed doing so would jeopardize Israel’s security. Clearly the latter – not his political fortunes – have been his priority, even to the point he lost an election over his refusal to participate in an agreement that he viewed as as potentially disastrous to Israel’s security . Based on this history, it is unlikely to imagine he is acting out of political expediency rather than conviction.

This entry was written by Heather Robinson and posted on March 1, 2015 at 12:58 am and filed under Blog. permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Keywords: Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Netanyahu speech. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. */?>