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Senator Schumer: Don’t Invite Netanyahu. He’s Not Your Ally or Your Friend. He Never Was
By Alon Pinkas –
6 minutes read time.
Dear majority leader, staunch friend and ally of Israel Senator Chuck Schumer, do not invite Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress. He has no business being there – not since his constitutional coup last year, and certainly not now in the midst of the war in Gaza.
You, Senator, are the last person in Washington who needs to demonstrate his pro-Israel bona fides. They have been reliably ironclad for decades.
The prime minister pretends to want and need a show of support from Congress and “be heard.” You’ve heard enough already in his endless interviews on U.S. media outlets.
Support from Congress? That’s a novel idea. This Congress generously and graciously authorized over $14 billion in emergency aid to Israel in April, per U.S. President Joe Biden’s request.
Netanyahu wants to tell you that Israel is fighting a “second War of Independence.” Over 50 percent of the Israeli public, in consistent polling, isn’t buying that narrative. Over 70 percent want him to resign. He wants to warn you of the grave dangers of “imposing” on Israel a Palestinian state? That’s a blatant lie. No one is imposing anything, and he has had 15 years to come up with an alternative model to the two-state solution. Have you heard anything from him on that? Of course not.
He will sanctimoniously try to convey to you a charade of “business as usual” and an “unbreakable alliance,” after months of deriding, ignoring, defying and confronting the United States at every opportunity and on issues that relate directly to American interests. He wants to bask in the adulation of MAGA lawmakers, but both they and he know there’s a much more sinister motive here.
His plan is crystal clear: Damage Biden among Democratic voters, assist his soulmate Donald Trump and rebrand himself domestically in Israel as some kind of statesman after the catastrophic debacle of October 7 – for which he still refuses to be held responsible and accountable.
That is why he and his acolytes concocted this invitation with House Speaker Mike Johnson to address a joint session of Congress. There’s no innocent “politics and friendship” alliance here, just mutual interests.
Remember Netanyahu’s March 2015 speech against President Barack Obama on the Iran nuclear deal? That was contrived surreptitiously behind the back of the administration with then-House Speaker John Boehner, intentionally to hurt Obama and then-Vice President Biden. The modus operandi remains the same. Con artists rarely tend to change the formula.
As for a political backlash, that’s exactly what Netanyahu desires. He wants demonstrations against him in Washington. That would vindicate his “the world is against us” narrative. He wants demonstrations against Biden and the Democrats. That helps his bro from Mar-a-Lago.
Sen. Schumer, there’s a simple way to avoid saying no to an ally. Just state: “If Mr. Netanyahu wants to come, he is more than welcome to address Congress the day after the November 5 election in the United States. Any earlier date smacks of a political gimmick for grandstanding purposes.”
If the GOP-majority House of Representatives wants to invite him separately, that is its prerogative – though it arguably confirms the fact that it’s nothing more than a political ruse.
Sen. Schumer, you made a bold statement in March, saying that Netanyahu had lost his way and Israel should hold parliamentary elections. Over 50 percent of Israelis agree with you. So what changed? There is no reason in the world why he should be speaking to Congress now.
In January 2023, he instigated a constitutional coup that attempted – and still clearly attempts – to transform Israel from a liberal democracy to a quasi-authoritarian state. He has consciously distanced Israel from the “shared values” roots of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Don’t fall for his “We share the Ten Commandments” and “We’re sister democracies fighting Islamofascism” speech. It was true and will be true again without him.
He should be busy 24/7 doing everything humanly possible to secure the release of Israeli hostages and managing the war, not pandering to Congress for no obvious reason. Do not invite him. He is not your ally. He is not your friend. He never was. His sole purpose is to damage President Biden’s reelection bid while doing Trump’s bidding. Pure and simple.
o not invite him. He is manipulating your political system, deliberately foisting Israel as a partisan wedge issue.
Do not invite a man who calls his relationship with Vladimir Putin (and Trump) as “a different league.” A man who just last summer flirted with China to signal to Biden that Israel has “options.”
Do not invite him, because this is a political stunt by a cynical ingrate going for a twofer: hurting Biden and trying to save himself.
This isn’t new. His track record of meddling in American politics is rich. In 1991, he admonished U.S. Mideast policy and was unceremoniously designated persona non grata at the State Department by then-Secretary of State James Baker III.
In 1997, he aligned himself with Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich against President Bill Clinton. That same Netanyahu in 1998 flagrantly broke with protocol and met Jerry Falwell, leader of the Christian right evangelical Moral Majority organization, before meeting Clinton. The same Netanyahu who in 2002 recommended to Congress an invasion of Iraq; the same one who all but endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election against Obama.
Most glaringly, this is the same Netanyahu who, while wailing and whining about Biden and Schumer’s attempts to depose of him “instead of toppling Hamas,” suddenly has no recollection of 2015 when he spoke to Congress against the Iran nuclear deal.
Sen. Schumer, can you genuinely come up with one valid reason why, after all that Biden has done for Israel since October 7, Netanyahu has the urge to come and speak to Congress? I doubt you have one.
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