Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Kamala Harris, as vice president, is also the president pro tempore of the United States Senate which means that during a joint session, Harris would ceremonially preside.
Not today. Harris has some politicking to do and can't be bothered representing the administration during this important address by an ally.
The list of Democrats boycotting the speech grows by the hour. Meanwhile, the media is saying that it's a "bipartisan"(?) boycott because one Republican has decided to join the Democrats. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) doesn't want to be a "prop" for the State Department.
Today Congress will undertake political theater on behalf of the State Department.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 24, 2024
The purpose of having Netanyahu address Congress is to bolster his political standing in Israel and to quell int’l opposition to his war.
I don’t feel like being a prop so I won’t be attending.
So far, at least 18 House Democrats and nine Senate Democrats have said they have other pressing business they must attend to rather than listening to what the Israeli prime minister has to say.
Some claim they won't attend a speech by a "war criminal." Considering that Netanyahu has not been formally tried and convicted of any crime, they are pretty quick on the trigger to smear the Israeli prime minister before any court hears his case.
What's truly disheartening is that all these Democrats are failing to show support for the eight Americans still being held by terrorists in Gaza. We don't know if they're alive or dead because Hamas refuses to release any information about them. We know that Hamas is refusing to cut a deal with Netanyahu and Israel, prolonging the agony of the hostage families.
Hamas knows this, and it's hoping that the hostage families bring so much pressure on Netanyahu that he gives in on several demands that the terrorists refuse to concede.
“What we're all hoping to hear is that a deal has been completed,” Efrat Moshkoviz told NPR. She is the aunt of Naama Levy. TV footage showed Levy, who just turned 20 in captivity, being dragged, bloodied, and gagged, onto a truck.
“To be slightly more realistic, I want to hear explicit commitment. I want Netanyahu to look us in the eye, all of the hostage families, and say, ‘I am committed to this. I will get this done. It's my top priority and it's a matter of hours or days,’” she added.
It doesn't matter if it's Neanyahu's top priority. Release of the hostages is low on the Hamas priority list.
Eight American hostages are still being held in Gaza, among 120 hostages still in captivity; more than one-third of hostages are believed to be dead. Netanyahu’s office previously announced that Israel would be sending negotiators back to the table on Thursday, but Israeli officials said Wednesday that the Israeli delegation would leave only after President Biden and Netanyahu meet on Thursday.
Moshkoviz is set to be joined in the audience by other family members of Israeli hostages as guests of U.S. lawmakers, in addition to those in Netanyahu’s delegation, including rescued hostage Noa Argamani and her father Yaakov.
For Democrats, the hostages are better seen and not heard. They are a painful symbol of Joe Biden's failures as a leader.
Ronen and Orna Neutra, the parents of U.S. hostage Omer Neutra, spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.
"This was not merely an attack on Israel; this was and remains an attack on Americans," Ronen Neutra said. She reminded the convention that 45 of the 1,200 people murdered by Hamas on Oct. 7 were Americans.
Netanyahu met with representatives of the eight American hostage families shortly after he touched down in Washington on Monday.
"The families told Netanyahu in no uncertain terms that they expect him to announce this week that he has finalized the deal to bring their family members home," a statement from the meeting read. "Anything less, they said, would constitute an abject failure of his trip to Washington."
There is tension between Netanyahu and both sides of the U.S. political aisle. Some Democrats continue to chafe over his 2015 speech before Congress in which he attacked President Barack Obama’s Iran policy. Meanwhile, Trump was put off by Netanyahu’s embrace of Biden after the 2020 election.
Harris has been tougher in her criticism of Israel than Biden, hewing closer to the progressive flank of her party. Netanyahu will need to be wary of reigniting controversy over Israel just as she is formulating her own public approach to what has become a wedge issue in the election.
The absence of Kamala Harris does not assuage the agony of those families. They feel no solidarity with her position. All they want is their loved ones back.
Benjamin Netanyahu has the weight of the entire nation on his shoulders. Hopefully, before too long, they will be reunited with their loved ones and Israel will be a little safer from attack.
