Netanyahu shouldn’t address Congress without bipartisan support
In 2015, I stood right behind Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu — both literally and morally — just before he walked through the doors of the House to address a joint session of Congress. His visit was controversial. Speaker John Boehner had extended the invitation to Netanyahu, bypassing President Barack Obama in a flagrant violation of congressional norms. The aim was not to strengthen the bipartisan alliance between Israel and the U.S. but to drive a wedge through it — to give Netanyahu a bully pulpit to criticize Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
I believed the speech to be ill-advised and ill-timed. Yet I also believed that the substantive relationship between Washington and Jerusalem had to transcend the petty attempt to politicize the alliance. And so I stood with the official escort committee behind Netanyahu when the sergeant at arms proclaimed, “Mr. Speaker, the prime minister of Israel.”
Now, nine years later, another GOP Speaker has invited Netanyahu for a reprise of that “Made for TV” moment. Only this time, it seems more like “The Twilight Zone.”
Try to follow the plot twists. The prime minister of Israel seems to be rewarding the House Republicans whose political........
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