Why Two Democrats Will — And Won't — Attend Netanyahu's Speech
NPR
Thursday, February 26, 2015
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Democratic U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel, but says he will not be attending Israeli President Netanyahu's address to Congress. Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York's Third District will attend. He organized Jewish Democratic members of Congress to meet with the Israeli Ambassador to get him to move the meeting and wrote a letter to Speaker John Boehner protesting how the invitation was issued, but is still planning to attend despite his concerns.
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Democratic U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky will not attend but Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York's Third District will. Robert Siegel talks to both Yarmuth and Israel.
Transcript
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress next week about Iran, and he's expected to condemn the talks. His invitation by House Speaker John Boehner was not cleared with the White House. President Obama's national security adviser said on Tuesday that this has injected a degree of partisanship destructive to the relationship between Israel and the U.S. Well, we're going to hear from two Democratic members of Congress, both Jewish, both strong supporters of Israel. One will attend Netanyahu's speech to hear him out. The other has decided to skip it, and that's the view we'll start with. Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky joins us in the studio. Welcome.
CONGRESSMAN JOHN YARMUTH: Thank you.
SIEGEL: You've written that you've been briefed on the Israeli position on the Iran talks, you know what the prime minister has to say. Is he right or wrong about Iran?
YARMUTH: Well, I think he's wrong. And what's more, what I'm concerned about is that many of the American people will only hear from Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I think that's dangerous because that would make it very difficult for the country to have bipartisan broad support for any agreement, if it should happen.
SIEGEL: But when you say that he's wrong, what is it that he's fundamentally wrong about in your view?
YARMUTH: Well, I think he's wrong in that the negotiations, as I understand them - and of course we don't know and he doesn't know exactly what would be in a final package - I think actually do solve the problem of the prospect of Iran getting nuclear weapon capacity. He thinks that any enrichment capacity - any remnant of the some existing program should be eliminated, and anything short of that is not acceptable. I think he's wrong about that.
SIEGEL: You've said that attending the Netanyahu speech will become a matter of scorekeeping, first, as to who attends, I guess, and then as to who stands up and applauds and who doesn't. Who's going to do the scorekeeping do you think?
YARMUTH: Well, first of all, they're going to be - the gallery is going to be full of people who are here for the AIPAC convention.
SIEGEL: AIPAC is the big pro-Israel lobby?
YARMUTH: AIPAC is the - and, I would say, the more conservative pro-Israel organization. So all of those people in the gallery are going to be watching their members to see if they stand up or not, and there's going to be a litmus test as to whether you're supporting Israel, which is wrong. I mean, we should all be able to disagree about Israeli policy without being called anti-Israel. But I was in the chamber in 2011 when the Prime Minister spoke. There's enormous pressure to stand up there with, like, 17 just standing ovations for him. I was then in Israel three months later, and virtually everybody I ran into said, what was all that unanimous support for Netanyahu? You mean everybody agrees with him? So I think that's one of the dangers of this speech.
SIEGEL: You think that attendance of most, I gather, of the 19 Jewish members of the House of Representatives, all but one of whom are Democrats - that their attendance will be used as a signal in Israel to show - look, they all support Bibi Netanyahu?
YARMUTH: Well, I think the entire speech is going to be used to create that impression. As a matter of fact, in 2013, in his last campaign, the Prime Minister used his appearance in Congress in 2011 as part of a campaign ad. So he will definitely do that. The impression will be created in Israel that the Congress supports him and not the president. And I think that's very dangerous for us.
SIEGEL: You represent Louisville, Ky. Your district is - to put it mildly, it's not as heavily Jewish as some districts in New York or California.
YARMUTH: 1 percent.
SIEGEL: Do you think that you would come under much greater pressure to attend if you represented a district that was - I don't know, 30 or 40 percent Jewish?
YARMUTH: I suspect so, but the question will be what percentage of those Jewish citizens in any particular district actually support this speech. I suspect that if you go across the country, a majority of Jews don't support Netanyahu's speech. They understand that this has become very divisive, and the one thing that Jews don't want is any kind of partisanship entering into the American-Israeli relationship.
SIEGEL: That's Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky who is not attending next week's speech by Benjamin Netanyahu to Congress. Thank you very much.
YARMUTH: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.
SIEGEL: And now another Congressman, also a Democrat, also Jewish - a very strong supporter of Israel who made a different decision about the Netanyahu speech. After Netanyahu accepted the Republicans' invitation, Representative Steve Israel of New York organized a meeting. It was held earlier this month. Israel's ambassador to the U.S. was there along with Jewish Democratic Congressmen, all strong Israel supporters. And Congressman Israel joins from Capitol Hill. Welcome to the program.
CONGRESSMAN STEVE ISRAEL: Thank you, Robert.
SIEGEL: You obviously had enough misgivings about all this to organize a special meeting about it. Why have you decided to attend in the end?
ISRAEL: Well, you know, no surprise, John Yarmuth and I are both Jewish members of Congress. So between the two of us, we have a six opinions and probably belong to about 16 different synagogues. I believe that John Boehner's invitation was designed as a political trap, and I do not believe in politics that when you know that somebody has designed a trap for you, that you rush into that trap. This was a political attempt by John Boehner to try and drive a wedge between Democrats in Congress and Israel. I will not allow John Boehner to drive that wedge. I have been to Israel more times than John Boehner has been to a golf course, and I'm not going to fall into this political trap.
SIEGEL: If in fact there is a deal reached soon with Iran and the other parties negotiating it by which Iran does not completely eliminate all of its capacity to enrich uranium, whose position do you think would be more popular with your constituents - President Obama saying, we have a deal, or Bibi Netanyahu saying, that deal jeopardizes the safety of Israel?
ISRAEL: Well, first of all, I have been to many, many classified briefings on the deal. And full disclosure - if the deal was consummated today as it's been described to me, I would vote against it. I have some real problems with the deal. I would suspect, based on the phone calls and letters I've been getting, most of my constituents who are involved in this oppose the deal as they understand it to be. However, most of my constituents are very unhappy with the way that John Boehner issued this invitation.
SIEGEL: You know that Prime Minister Netanyahu opposes the deal as it has been described so far. Do you understand what his alternative to that deal is?
ISRAEL: I have had several conversations with Israeli officials about alternatives. And in a sense, they are, as many are, operating in a vacuum because they're not sitting in on negotiating sessions. I do believe that Israel has a responsibility to present some alternatives if a deal falls through.
SIEGEL: Not just bomb Iran, but alternatives between...
ISRAEL: ...No, no.
SIEGEL: ...This current deal and war?
ISRAEL: The fact of the matter is that when you get beyond all the optics that are now defining this debate, the United States and Israel have had critically important intelligence and security cooperation with respect to Iran. We have to continue that. This is the real disservice that John Boehner has created. Instead of us talking about the substance of this deal, everybody is wrapped up in the optics of one invitation to one prime minister to one speech in Congress. We need to talk about the substance and not an invitation to a guest as if this is a wedding that's gone wrong.
SIEGEL: That's Democratic Congressman Steve Israel of New York who is attending next week's address to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We heard earlier from Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky who's not going to be attending. Steve Israel, thanks for talking with us.
ISRAEL: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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