What Netanyahu should and shouldn’t say to Congress

Next week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress at the invitation of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. In a New York Times op-ed last month strongly criticizing the Prime Minister, Thomas Friedman framed the decision as a ploy to divide Democrats and insult President Biden ostensibly drawing a parallel between Netanyahu’s upcoming address and his 2015 ill-advised decision to address Congress to lobby against then-President Barack Obama’s plan to enter into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, more commonly known as the JCPOA or simply the Iran Nuclear Deal.

While there is certainly a fair amount of criticism that can be leveled against Netanyahu for his contribution to the deterioration of US-Israeli relations over the years, including a video he put out last month publicly calling out what he alleged was the US putting the brakes on weapon shipments to Israel, there is no reason to invent issues just to find more fault with him. The Prime Minister’s upcoming unprecedented fourth address to Congress by a foreign leader is very different from his 2015 address for two reasons:

First, is the matter of who invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress. In 2015, both houses of Congress were controlled by Republicans who were dead against the proposed nuclear deal and eager to insult the Democratic President. His mere acceptance of the invitation fueled the growing partisan wedge when it came to support for Israel in violating diplomatic protocol by bypassing the White House to urge Congress to reject the deal.

By contrast, Netanyahu’s 2024 invitation is a bipartisan one and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, consulted with the White House before signing on to the invitation undermining any argument that Netanyahu is disrespecting President Joe Biden by virtue of accepting the invitation.

Additionally, unlike in 2015 when President Obama refused to meet with the Prime Minister when he came to Washington to address Congress, President Biden is expected to host Netanyahu at the White House two days ahead of his address to Congress signaling that the Biden administration does not feel slighted by Netanyahu’s decision to accept the invitation.

Second, unlike in 2015, the content of Netanyahu’s address does not have to be contentious. The stated goal of Netanyahu’s 2015 address was to convince Congress that the JCPOA, championed by President Obama, was a bad deal that Congress should vote against. Conversely, in 2024, despite evident differences between the White House and the Prime Minister as to how to go about the war, President Biden is on record as supporting Israel’s rights to defend itself, ensure its national security, and free the hostages – the very ideas the Prime Minister is seemingly out to remind Congress of.

Thus, Netanyahu has no reason to make the 2024 version of his Congressional address adversarial and would do Israel no favors by making it such. So long as he avoids criticizing the policies of the Biden administration from the House dais, there is no reason for him not to remind American lawmakers why supporting Israel is so important and thank them for decades of such support.

Furthermore, as important as Iranian nuclear ambitions are to Israel, anyone who understands the U.S. political landscape – including the Prime Minister himself – should have known that the 2015 address against the Iran deal was not going to change anyone’s mind. To those opposed to the deal, namely, the Republicans and a small handful of Democrats, he was preaching to the choir; while to the majority of Democrats, he was undermining their leader in his own backyard. Despite Netanyahu’s arguments that the address was necessary to do everything he can to stop what he called a bad deal from being signed, he should have known that the move would have a net negative – specifically, not changing anyone’s mind and further driving a wedge in Democratic support for Israel. Netanyahu may have been correct in the substance of his arguments against the JCPOA, but he was wrong to bring those arguments to Congress and arguably worsened the situation for Israel as a result.

Likewise, lecturing the President over the differences he has with the White House when it comes to the future of Gaza, however important the issues may be to Israel’s security, will not only fail to rally support among Democrats, but also risks further alienating them to the growing number of Democrats who no longer view support for Israel as an important foreign policy of the United States.

Therefore, it is imperative that the Prime Minister toes the common line of support for Israel held by a majority of American lawmakers and avoids publicly colliding with the White House from the House floor. It would be wise of the Prime Minister to utilize the opportunity to address Congress to celebrate the largely bipartisan support Israel enjoys in Congress and thank them for such, while saving the disagreements for private meetings. In doing so, he can use his oratorical skills to further his cause by uniting the bipartisan majority that supports Israel instead of risking losing half, thereby disproving critics who see him as coming to deepen the growing partisan divide on support for Israel.