Some Democrats accede to Netanyahu and Boehner

Most of the outspoken supporters of Israel among Los Angeles’ congressional representatives will attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech on Iranian nuclear capabilities before a joint session of Congress — but not without first expressing their displeasure with the Israeli leader and Republican House Speaker John Boehner. 

Neither the White House nor the State Department was notified of the address — orchestrated by Boehner with the assistance of Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer — prior to its announcement, a clear breach of protocol for a visit by a foreign leader. And the speech is set to take place just two weeks before Israeli elections, generating accusations that political motivations are at work. 

Although support for Israel typically has been a bipartisan issue in Congress, some Southern California House Democrats believe Boehner’s surreptitious invitation to Netanyahu is an attempt to divide their party’s allegiance to the Jewish state.

“I think Boehner’s goal was to try to drive a wedge between Democrats and Israel. That helps Boehner, but ultimately it hurts Israel,” U.S. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who will attend the speech, told the Journal in a phone interview. 

U.S. Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles) and Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) also will attend the speech, according to members of their staff, and Schiff has communicated frustrations similar to Sherman during various TV interviews in the past few weeks. 

“It is so important that the support for Israel be bipartisan,” said former U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, who for years was one of Israel’s most vocal Democratic supporters on the Hill. “Many Republicans have tried to drive a wedge between Democrats and the issue of the State of Israel, which I think is the wrong thing to do, and now the prime minister is helping them.”

As of press time Feb. 17, more than 20 House Democrats have said they will skip the speech, as have three Democratic senators. Many more Democrats are on the fence. According to media reports, Vice President Joe Biden also has declined to appear at the joint session, citing previously arranged travel plans. 

Although no members of Congress from the Los Angeles area have publicly declined to attend the joint session at this point, a few contacted by the Journal and other media outlets say they are still making up their minds, including U.S. Reps. Tony Cardenas (D-Panorama City), Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) and Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles). Sen. Dianne Feinstein also is still deciding. 

Sherman said he will speak with Democrats who have said they will not attend Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to communicate that “attendance at the speech does not constitute an endorsement of the fact that the speech is being given just two weeks before an Israeli election.” 

As Israel’s March 17 election approaches, Netanyahu’s Likud Party is neck and neck with Zionist Camp, a new center-left alliance between Isaac Herzog’s Labor Party and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah. In recent weeks, debate over the prime minister’s speech has consumed Israel, with parliamentary candidates and commentators on the left and right expressing disappointment with Netanyahu. Although a recent poll by Tel Aviv University found that most Israelis agree with Netanyahu that an agreement between the Obama administration and Iran could prove harmful to Israel, more than 57 percent think Netanyahu should not have accepted Boehner’s invitation, and 67 percent believe the timing of the speech is political. 

A similar incident took place in 2012 when Netanyahu and his Republican allies in Congress criticized Obama for declining to meet with the Israeli leader during his trip to speak at the United Nations just weeks before the American presidential election. Various Democrats, including Waxman and Sen. Barbara Boxer, defended the president and accused Netanyahu of turning a security issue into a political affair.

The prime minister’s present concern is the United States’ ongoing negotiations with Iran in Geneva over its nuclear program. Some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, have called for Congress to immediately enact new sanctions against Iran, prior to the negotiations’ March 24 deadline. They fear, as does Netanyahu, that no agreement will satisfy their demand of a completely denuclearized Iran. Obama has promised to veto any such pre-emptive legislation because it would thwart any chance of a comprehensive nuclear deal. 

When the Associated Press reported recently that the U.S. and Iran were considering a compromise that would diminish Iran’s ability to manufacture nuclear weapons but allow it to maintain uranium-enrichment technology, Republicans in Congress expressed outrage.

“I know what Netanyahu’s standards are. The best possible negotiations in Switzerland will not meet Netanyahu’s standards, but he would be in a much stronger position if he were to wait until he sees what comes out of the oven before he makes his pitch,” Sherman said.

Both Sherman and Waxman told the Journal they believe Netanyahu’s concern for how a deal with Iran would affect his country is legitimate, but that the method he is using to deliver that message is a misstep. 

“[Netanyahu] said that he needs to come here to express his outrage about the deal that may happen with Iran, which he feels could jeopardize Israel’s survival. And I think it is important that he communicate that,” Waxman said. “But there are ways he could communicate that other than by stepping into our domestic politics, leaving an unpleasant taste in the mouth of so many Americans.” 

In fact, Sherman said, many Democrats share Netanyahu’s concerns and would not support repealing sanctions on Iran.

“Obama isn’t even hinting to the Iranians that he can deliver a vote to Congress that he can lift sanctions. The question before Congress is, do we impose additional sanctions,” Sherman said.

Numerous Democrats, including Obama and Sherman, have said they would support additional sanctions against Iran if the negotiations do not result in an agreement. 

Even if the negotiations are successful, some Democrats are likely to find the agreement unsatisfactory and would support new sanctions against Iran despite the threat of a presidential veto. Netanyahu’s speech would make it more difficult for Democrats to vote for additional sanctions over Obama’s veto, Sherman said.

“If the purpose of speaking to the American Congress is to get Congress to vote in a particular way, then Netanyahu has already given the most spectacularly unsuccessful speech, and he hasn’t even reached the podium,” he said.

Regardless, Sherman plans to attend. 

“I have that much respect for the prime ministership of Israel.”