Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned a joint session of Congress on Tuesday that a potential deal with Iran will not prevent the country from securing nuclear weapons, threatening “the survival” of Israel and its people.
Netanyahu, who took to the House floor to warn of the dangers of a nuclear deal with Iran that the Obama administration is pursuing, was greeted like a visiting rock star as he arrived on the floor of the House chamber, with Democrats and Republicans standing in sustained applause and reaching across the aisle to shake hands with him.
Though Netanyahu stressed the historic bipartisan nature of the U.S.-Israel relationship and said his speech was not politically-motivated, more than four dozen Democrats skipped his speech, many calling it a rebuff to President Barack Obama.
Netanyahu praised Obama for aiding Israel, but said Iran can not be trusted. “At a time when many hope Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.”
He warned against the ongoing deal that the Obama administration is negotiating, saying it “will not prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, it would all but guarantee Iran gets nuclear weapons -- lots of them.”
He criticized the deal, saying it “leaves Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure” and that restrictions on Iran would last just a decade.
“That’s why this deal is so bad,” he said. “It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves it’s way to the bomb.”
Netanyahu acknowledged his speech had generated “much controversy,” but insisted his address was not politically motivated.
“We appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel,” Netanyahu said, noting that Obama had provided military aid and opposed anti-Israel stances at the United Nations. "I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political. That was never my intention.”
Still, few expect Netanyahu’s address to sway many minds in Congress, where many have already staked out positions or insist they they’ll wait to see the details of any deal that is reached.
The boycott list reads like a “Who’s Who in Congress”: Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., whom liberals are urging to run for president; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee; Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the House’s assistant Democratic leader and the highest-ranking member of the chamber who vowed to be a no-show.
Reasons for the individual boycotts varied. Several lawmakers expressed anger over what they considered efforts by Netanyahu and congressional Republicans to undermine the P5+1 negotiation with Iran even before they produced a final document.
At least 17 members of the 46-member Congressional Black Caucus passed on attending the prime minister’s speech, including CBC Chair G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C. and Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and John Lewis, D-Ga.
Several CBC members said Boehner’s invite to Netanyahu, and the prime minister’s appearance, showed disrespect toward the nation’s first African-American president.
But Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., who said he hoped a boycott would give organizers “second thoughts” about the speech, decided to attend the speech after entreaties from friends and constituents who didnt want to “add to the controversy.
“Nobody who has asked me to attend believes that this is the right thing to do,” Rangel told CNN of Netanyahu’s appearance. “They just don't believe my absence would correct it.”
Top Obama administration officials steered clear of Capitol Hill Tuesday. Vice President Joe Biden, who is also the president of the Senate, was in Guatemala as part for meetings on immigration with the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled to be in Monteux, Switzerland for a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
As Netanyahu spoke, President Barack Obama was in the White House’s Situation Room participating in a video conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and European Union Commission President Donald Tusk discussing the situation in Ukraine and other global security issues.
Obama isn’t scheduled to meet with Netanyahu during his visit to Washington. He said the “only reason” was because Netanyahu is up for reelection in two weeks and his policy is not to meet with leaders so close to an election.
“I've met with Prime Minister Netanyahu more than any other world leader,” Obama said Monday in an interview with Reuters. “And given the strong relationship between the United States and Israel, I would expect that to continue.”
National Security Adviser Susan Rice last week called Netanyahu’s speech “destructive” to the U.S.-Israel relationship, but Obama said he was “less concerned” with Netanyahu's address than he is with Congress pushing additional sanctions that he said could undermine the talks before they're complete.
“What I've said to members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, is there will be plenty of time for us to reapply sanctions, strengthen sanctions, to take a whole range of other measures, if in fact we do not have a deal,” Obama said in the Reuters interview. “But what we should not do is pre-judge the deal and initiate sanctions that might allow Iran to walk away and claim that the United States is the one that has eliminated the path to diplomacy.”
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