Donât disrespect our president, black lawmakers tell Netanyahu
The audience for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuâs speech to Congress on March 3 is shaping up to be largely Republican â and almost completely white. Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus say theyâre planning to skip the speech, calling it a slight to President Barack Obama that they canât and wonât support. Story Continued Below Israeli officials have been taken by surprise by the CBC backlash, kicked off by Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights leader who said last week he wonât attend, quickly followed by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and others. As a result, theyâre working to set up a meeting for CBC members with Ambassador Ron Dermer â or even Netanyahu himself when heâs in Washington. âTo me, it is somewhat of an insult to the president of the United States,â said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.), leaving the White House on Tuesday after a long meeting with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who also will miss the speech. âBarack Obama is my president. Heâs the nationâs president, and it is clear, therefore, that Iâm not going to be there, as a result of that, not as a result of the good people of Israel.â Netanyahuâs speech to Congress, scheduled just two weeks before Israeli national elections, is aimed at stopping a deal with Iran over its nuclear weapons program â a diplomatic opening Obama administration officials believe could reintegrate Iran into the international community and enhance Israelâs security. Netanyahu, however, feels the United States and its international partners are being naive about Iranâs true intent. âIâm determined to speak before Congress to stop Iran,â Netanyahu tweeted on Tuesday. Democrats across Capitol Hill have been increasingly vocal about their opposition to the speech, criticizing the prime minister and House Speaker John Boehner for making them choose between their support for their president and support for Israel. Announcements that Democrats plan to sit out the speech have trickled in for days. But the CBC reaction has been particularly potent, striking at the political alliance between Jews and African-Americans that dates to the civil rights movement but has grown more fraught over the years. Often Obamaâs strongest defenders against political attacks, black members say theyâre outraged that a foreign leader would try to intervene in the U.S. political process. âItâs not just about disrespect for the president, itâs disrespect for the American people and our system of government for a foreign leader to insert himself into a issue that our policymakers are grappling with,â said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). âItâs not simply about President Obama being a black man disrespected by a foreign leader. Itâs deeper than that.â CBC chairman Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) told reporters that the speech didnât come up as a topic in the 90 minutes they spent with Obama in the Cabinet Room. But he, like Meeks, Johnson and many of his members, is not planning to go to Netanyahuâs speech. Butterfield said the black caucus is in âconversationâ with Israeli officials to set up a meeting with either Netanyahu or the ambassador, who has met with several black members of Congress as part of his efforts to calm the furor. âCBC members are willing certainty to meet with any representative of Israel. We understand Israelâs plight, and we support the state of Israel,â Butterfield said. The CBC leader said Boehner is as much or more responsible for the slight as is the Israeli leader. âI donât hold Netanyahu responsible,â Butterfield said. âI hold Speaker Boehner responsible, but I would hope that Mr. Netanyahu would not want to get involved. I personally think it is disrespectful.â That was a word many members used: âIt is very disrespectful to this president, and what concerns me more is that I think itâs a pattern that is starting to develop from this speaker that weâre getting more and more disrespectful of the office of the presidency,â said Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.). âI think itâs silly and petty.â Asked whether CBC members see the speech as an insult, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) said, âI think they kind of think it is.â Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the CBCâs only member in the upper chamber, hasnât ruled out attending, but he wonât commit to going either. âIâve been asked that a number of times â Iâm not commenting,â he said before slipping out the White House gates and onto a waiting bus to take him back to the Capitol. The spokesman for the Israeli Embassy had no comment about the breakdown with the CBC over the speech. But a spokesman for Boehner defended the speakerâs decision to invite the Israeli leader: âPrime Minister Netanyahuâs upcoming visit isnât about Speaker Boehner, and itâs not about President Obama,â spokesman Cory Fritz said. âAt this critical moment itâs important that the American people hear from Israel about the grave threats posed by Iran and Islamic radicalism.â Though many CBC members are boycotting, for now theyâve decided not to make it an official caucus position. âThere are a number of members who arenât going to attend, but they donât want to make it sound like a group decision,â said Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). CBC members Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Donna Edwards (D-Md.) have also announced theyâre skipping the speech. Fellow CBC member Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) co-signed a letter Tuesday to Boehner with Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), calling for the speech to be postponed. âThe timing of this invitation and lack of coordination with the White House indicate that this is not an ordinary diplomatic visit,â they wrote. âWhen the Israeli prime minister visits us outside the specter of partisan politics, we will be delighted and honored to greet him or her on the floor of the House.â The idea of meeting with Dermer or Netanyahu separately doesnât seem to be catching on with CBC members, either. Noting that Dermer once worked for Republican pollster Frank Luntz, Johnson called the ambassador a âlongtime, right-wing political hackâ and said he is uninterested in meeting with either him or Netanyahu. âI donât think I would be willing to come to such a meeting,â Johnson said. âNot at that time, and under this condition, no.â