POLITICS

Netanyahu’s Visit Bringing Uninvited Problems for Jewish Democrats

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Speaker John A. Boehner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel during a meeting in Washington in March 2012. Allison Shelley/Getty Images 
WASHINGTON — Speaker John A. Boehner’s unilateral invitation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to address Congress on Tuesday has turned a foreign policy issue that has had near unanimous support in both parties — Israel — into a bruising political showdown.
And nowhere has that transformation been more wrenching than among Jewish members of Congress — all but one of them Democratic — who seem to reflect the dismay of the nation’s larger Jewish community over the House speaker’s action.
“I went out to play golf — I never play golf — with three of my Jewish buddies,” recalled Representative Alan Lowenthal, a Jewish Democrat from Southern California who only this weekend decided he will attend Mr. Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress. “One said, ‘You must go,’ one said, ‘You definitely should not go,’ and one said, ‘I’m in the middle.’ That literally reflects the American Jewish community.”
Through foreign policy trials as difficult as the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, Israeli settlement policies, Arab terrorism, and the repeated failures of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Jews in Congress — and to a large extent, Jews in the United States — have spoken in a near-monolithic voice, always in support of the government of Israel.
Senators Benjamin L. Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee event in Washington on Sunday. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters 
But the Boehner-Netanyahu alliance has done something that larger foreign policy crises have not: It has led to the open distinction between support for the State of Israel and allegiance to politicians who lead it.
“It’s a tipping-point moment,” said Rabbi John Rosove, an outspoken liberal and head of Temple Israel of Hollywood. “It’s no longer the Israeli government, right or wrong. The highest form of patriotism and loyalty is to criticize from a place of love.”
Representative John Yarmuth, a Jewish Democrat from Kentucky, foresees the prime minister castigating the foreign policy of President Obama, playing to a raucous, supportive audience that he will not be part of.
Representative Brad Sherman, a Jewish Democrat from California, anticipates the same divisive scene, but he, like most congressional Democrats, will attend.
Mr. Lowenthal warned Sunday that if Mr. Netanyahu “crosses the line” and criticizes the president directly, he will not hesitate to speak out after the speech.
So far, 30 Democrats — four senators and 26 representatives — have said they will not attend the speech. Nearly half are African-Americans, who say they feel deeply that Mr. Netanyahu is disrespecting the president by challenging his foreign policy. But a half-dozen of those Democrats planning to stay away are Jewish, and represent 21 percent of Congress’s Jewish members.
“I stand with Israel, always have stood with Israel, and always will, but this speech is not about Israel,” said Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, who accused the prime minister of politicking in Congress with an eye on Israel’s March 17 election. “Netanyahu is not Israel just like George W. Bush wasn’t America.”
He will not be attending.
Mr. Boehner — seemingly ready to try to separate Jewish voters from the Democratic Party they have long favored — remains resolute about his decision. He is also open about his hope that Mr. Netanyahu’s address will undermine the Obama administration’s efforts to negotiate an accord with Iran that halts that nation’s nuclear program.
“What I do wonder is why the White House feels threatened because the Congress wants to support Israel and wants to hear what a trusted ally has to say,” Mr. Boehner said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And it’s been frankly remarkable to me the extent to which, over the last five or six weeks, the White House has attacked the prime minister.”
Congress’s lone Jewish Republican, freshman Representative Lee Zeldin of New York, sounded what was once a bipartisan sentiment.
“Regardless of whether you are Jewish or not Jewish, Republican or Democrat, if you greatly value having the strongest relationship possible with Israel, welcoming the Israeli prime minister to America with open arms should be something members fully embrace,” he said. “It is an opportunity to let not just the Israeli prime minister know, but the Israeli people know, that America is united in strengthening our relationship with Israel.”
To some Jews in Congress, the rupture has been a long time coming. Mr. Netanyahu’s leaning toward Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election signaled his willingness to align his conservative Likud Party with the Republican Party, yet his government’s support in Congress remained overwhelming and bipartisan.

Document: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Letter to Democratic Senators 

But to many Democrats, this time Mr. Netanyahu appears to have gone out of his way to alienate them. On Feb. 13, Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, spoke with the Israeli leader, suggesting that he drop his public speech and instead meet in a closed session with both parties to discuss his misgivings about the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program. He told her that he would consider it.
“I haven’t heard from him since,” she said.
Last week, two Senate Democrats, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Dianne Feinstein of California, suggested another private meeting. Again, Mr. Netanyahu declined.
“Israel is our ally. We support the State of Israel, but these kinds of actions, coming here to speak against the president?” said Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, who will not attend Tuesday’s speech. “There are members who feel they have to choose between John Boehner and Bibi Netanyahu on one hand and President Barack Obama. That is an unfair place to be put in.”
Ms. Feinstein, who is Jewish and one of her party’s leading voices on national security, said Sunday: “There’s a lot of broken crockery. Now the question is how much broken crockery. The country relationship is sure to stand. The people relationship, that’s a different story.”
Still, most Jewish Democrats are quicker to blame the Republican speaker for the controversy than the conservative prime minister.
“Call me naïve, but I think Netanyahu was railroaded here,” Representative Steve Israel, Democrat of New York, said.
Beyond Capitol Hill, the larger Jewish community is equally vexed. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, the pro-Israel lobby that opened its annual policy conference here on Sunday, has pressed Democrats — especially Jewish Democrats — hard to attend, openly worried about the partisanship entering American-Israeli relations.
“As I’m sure everyone knows, the invitation for this speech has been surrounded in controversy which has taken a partisan tone,” an Aipac official wrote in an email urging member to pressure Democrats to attend. “With the hyped news headlines, many of our friends on the Democratic side of the aisle are under significant pressure not to attend the speech from groups who are primarily partisan in nature and see the invitation as an offense to President Obama.”
J Street, which bills itself as the “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby, has taken out full-page newspaper advertisements demanding that the speech be postponed.
The Orthodox Union, an umbrella organization for Orthodox Jewry, released a statement urging “all members of Congress and Americans who care deeply about American and global security to respectfully and carefully listen to the unique perspective of the elected leader of our key ally — Israel.”
Abraham H. Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the speech should be canceled.
“For some time, there has been a greater diversity of viewpoints on Israel issues within Israel than within the American Jewish community,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff, a Jewish Democrat from California who will attend. “You’re now starting to see more diversity of opinion in the pro-Israel community here.”
To Mr. Israel, the New York Democrat, that is not a positive development. Jewish philanthropic organizations can channel donations from American Jews to nongovernmental organizations in Israel, but United States aid will always be predominantly government to government. Mr. Israel said the last thing Israel — or the Democratic Party — needed was political tension over American aid to Israel.
“When you separate Israel from the policies of its government, it complicates the matter for Congress,” Mr. Israel said.
Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on March 2, 2015, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Netanyahu’s Visit Bringing Uninvited Problems for Jewish Democrats. Order Reprints|  Today's Paper|Subscribe