Warren to skip Netanyahu speech The Massachusetts senator called John Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu "unfortunate."

Elizabeth Warren waited all the way up to the night before Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to announce that she would skip Tuesday’s speech by the Israeli prime minister.

The Massachusetts Democrat confirmed in a statement to the Boston Globe that she would not attend the speech due, she said, to the manner in which House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) invited Netanyahu to address Congress: in the middle of Netanyahu’s election campaign.


“It’s unfortunate that Speaker Boehner’s actions on the eve of a national election in Israel have made Tuesday’s event more political and less helpful for addressing the critical issue of nuclear nonproliferation and the safety of our most important ally in the Middle East,” Warren said, emphasizing her support for Israel and her worry over nuclear proliferation in Iran.

The senator’s statement was not widely distributed through her press office. She also noted that she met with Netanyahu in Israel in November, the first foreign trip of her Senate career.

Warren voted against the Senate’s new Iran sanctions bill in the Senate Banking Committee in January, one of just four Democrats to oppose legislation that would impose new penalties on Iran in the event it reneges on any nuclear agreement with the United States.

Warren joins a handful of Senate Democratic Caucus members to skip the address, such as Al Franken of Minnesota and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as well as dozens of House Democrats. Many are skipping because it’s election season in Israel and because Boehner arranged the speech without consultation with President Barack Obama, they say.

Others who had remained undecided until Monday afternoon are ultimately deciding to attend. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), whose invitation for a private meeting between Netanyahu and Senate Democrats was spurned last week, will attend the speech, as will Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

“The speech is a mistake, but the relationship is too important,” Murphy said of the ties between the U.S. and Israel.