By Israel’s embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, an event that is expected to draw crowds of protesters and provide a sharp contrast between the United States’ two political parties in their evolving approach to one of America’s closest allies.
Netanyahu comes to Capitol Hill at a fraught time in both Israeli and American politics. Already a divisive figure before Hamas’s cross-border Oct. 7 attack that left some 1,200 Israelis dead and ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu faces a growing tide of dissent at home, where two-thirds of the Israeli public want to see him leave office.
In Washington, Netanyahu has come to embody the Biden administration’s frustrations with an ally that some officials see as having exploited America’s support to mete out excessive punishment to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. Republicans, by contrast, have embraced Netanyahu — seeking to portray the right-wing leader as a cherished ally, betrayed and undermined by President Biden and the Democrats in Israel’s most critical hour of need.
Netanyahu’s speech Wednesday before Congress, in response to an invitation initially extended by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) alone, presents an uncomfortable moment for Democrats, who remain divided in their opinions of the U.S.-Israel relationship — an emotional topic for many voters — four months ahead of a turbulent presidential election.
Netanyahu landed in Washington on Monday, the day after President Biden announced he was quitting the race for a second term and endorsed Vice President Harris as his successor. Harris has been careful not to publicly diverge from Biden’s staunch support of Israel. But she was among the first high-ranking administration officials to speak emphatically about civilian casualties, question the way Israel has prosecuted its war against Hamas and viscerally express concern about the devastation in Gaza.
U.S. officials have insisted in recent weeks that they are close to reaching a cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel, but some still privately note that opposition to a deal from Netanyahu’s far-right government remains a major obstacle.
Dozens of Democratic lawmakers, including several Jewish members of Congress, are planning to skip Netanyahu’s speech on Wednesday afternoon in protest of his government’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has killed some 39,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Harris and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the president pro tempore of the Senate, both turned down requests to preside over the joint meeting and will not attend, according to aides.
“People do not want to send a signal of support to Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extremist coalition,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who returned Saturday from a trip to the Middle East and is skipping the speech. “I refuse to be a prop in the political deception that Prime Minister Netanyahu is a great guardian of U.S.-Israel relations, when in fact, he and his extremist partners … are sabotaging that relationship.”
Capitol Police on Tuesday arrested scores of antiwar protesters who sought to occupy a House office building. Authorities erected steel barriers surrounding the Capitol grounds — a level of security reminiscent of the measures taken after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, riot and attack on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump — in anticipation of larger protests Wednesday.
Netanyahu’s critics in both Israel and the United States, including some families of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, have accused him of prolonging the war to further his own political survival. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in March called the Israeli leader one of the four main obstacles to peace and urged Israelis to vote him out of office.
This will be Netanyahu’s fourth address to a U.S. Congress, the most that any foreign leader has delivered.
Johnson extended the invitation to Netanyahu months ago, effectively daring Schumer to refuse to sign on. “I cajoled him,” Johnson told an audience at the Republican National Convention last week, saying he believed Schumer only signed the invitation after he leaked the invitation to the press.
Schumer said in May that he was never opposed to inviting Netanyahu, because “our relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends any one prime minister or president.”
On Tuesday, Johnson also slammed Harris for skipping the event, which her aide said was due to a previously scheduled conflict and not a reflection of her views on Israel.
“Madam Vice President, you say you want to be the leader of the free world and yet you can’t bring yourself to sit behind our most important strategic ally in this moment,” Johnson said at a news conference. “That is not a good look for you. It’s not a good look for America. It’s not a good look for her party that she aims to lead.”
At least nine senators have already announced plans to skip the event.
“I will not be going to listen to Mr. Netanyahu,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said last week on MSNBC. “I think he never should have been invited.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, plans to speak at a counter-rally during Netanyahu’s address. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she was giving her ticket to family members of the hostages. Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.) said she invited as her guest Harrison Mann, an Army officer who resigned over U.S. support for Israel, and said they will boycott the speech together.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian American member of Congress, has accused Netanyahu of carrying out genocide against Palestinians and said he is a war criminal who “should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.”
Many Democrats are still expected to be in attendance. Some chastised colleagues for their protest, echoing Republicans in their argument that the United States should continue to display a steadfast commitment to the Jewish state, regardless of politics.
“Israel is one of our most important strategic partners, and it’s a nation in the middle of an existential war with three Iranian-backed terror armies,” said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) in a statement. “I encourage my colleagues to appreciate the need for bipartisanship in this moment, and to demonstrate our resolve for Middle East peace and stability.”
The vast majority of Democrats, including some who want to see the Biden administration put more pressure on Israel to accept a cease-fire, voted earlier this year to send billions of dollars in supplemental military aid to the Jewish state.
Even Democrats who said they will attend the address made clear their distaste for Netanyahu. “Benjamin Netanyahu is the worst leader in Jewish history since the Maccabean king who invited the Romans into Jerusalem over 2100 years ago,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Tuesday, calling the address “a cynical stunt aimed at aiding his own desperate political standing at home and meddling in domestic American politics only months before a highly consequential election.”
But the self-described “lifelong Zionist” said he planned to attend the speech anyway, out of his respect for the Jewish state and his commitment to an eventual two-state solution. “I feel my voice is more impactful in the room, holding the Prime Minister accountable,” Nadler said.
Biden and Harris are both expected to meet with Netanyahu this week. But White House officials have in private tried to distance themselves from the visit, telling people that they were not involved in the invitation, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.
Netanyahu is no stranger to being incendiary in U.S. politics. He used his last address to Congress, in 2015, to blast the Obama administration’s efforts toward an Iran nuclear deal, infuriating the White House. The Israeli leader is expected to tread a more bipartisan line on Wednesday, although he and Biden have clashed in recent months over Israel’s war conduct and the provision of humanitarian aid to desperate Palestinian civilians.
Netanyahu has made little effort to disguise his preference for former president Donald Trump and the Republican Party, at one point this year addressing via video call a meeting of Republican senators, and dispatching two of his top diplomats to the Republican National Convention last week, where they spoke at an event alongside Johnson. Trump on Tuesday said that he plans to host Netanyahu for a meeting this week at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
“There really is only one true pro-Israel party and it is the Republican Party. We have been demonstrating that over and over and over,” Johnson told an audience at an event hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition at the RNC last week. “This is a moment for moral clarity, and it is unconscionable to us that the president of the United States and some of the leaders in the Senate are unable or unwilling to stand and say what is good and what is evil.”
In a letter Tuesday, Johnson threatened to have guests removed and arrested by the sergeant-at-arms and Capitol Police if they disrupt the event.
Yasmeen Abutaleb, Mariana Alfaro, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.