Leahy to skip Netanyahu's speech

The partisan divide over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March address to Congress deepened further on Tuesday, with the Senate’s most-senior lawmaker announcing that he will not attend the speech.

In a highly critical statement on Tuesday morning, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont called the speech arranged by House Speaker John Boehner “a tawdry and highhanded stunt that has embarrassed not only Israel but the Congress itself.” Leahy joins Vermont’s other senator, independent Bernie Sanders, in skipping the speech, as well as a number of House Democrats who have been critical of the address, which comes as President Barack Obama tries to reach a nuclear deal with Iran — an effort opposed by Netanyahu.


The seven-term Leahy said that by unilaterally scheduling the speech without the White House’s input, House Republican leaders “demolished the potential constructive value of this joint meeting.” Leahy’s comments carry extra weight because until the GOP took the Senate in January, Leahy was in the presidential line of succession as Senate president pro tempore.

“It has long been an unwritten rule and practice through the decades that when it comes to American foreign policy, we speak and act thoughtfully, with one voice when we can, with the national interests of the United States as our uppermost consideration and with caution about the unintended consequences of unilateral actions like this,” Leahy said. “They have diminished that valuable precedent.”

Sanders became the first senator to announce he would skip Netanyahu’s March 3 address, joining several House Democrats that will also not attend the speech.

“I’m not going. I may watch it on TV,” Sanders said on Monday.

A separate group of House Democrats is urging a delay in the speech, which comes in the middle of campaign season in Israel.