March 4, 2015

Picture by Daniel Mennerich

The past six weeks leading up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at a joint session of Congress have been nothing short of controversial. While Netanyahu received at least 26 standing ovations during his speech before the United States Congress on Tuesday, nearly sixty congressional Democrats were not among those applauding him. Among those who boycotted the speech were Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Vice President Joe Biden also missed the speech due to overseas travel.

The Obama administration and many congressional Democrats criticized Netanyahu and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner for bypassing protocol and injecting partisan politics into the US-Israel relationship. Netanyahu came to Washington with an agenda - to urge America to not go ahead with a deal with Iran, just two weeks ahead of the general election in Israel.

In a statement after the address, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi called the speech “an insult to the intelligence of the United States” and criticized the Prime Minister’s “condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.”

ACTION ALERT

If American Muslims really want to engage and become effective - if we want to make changes in policy, then let's support those Members of Congress who skipped the speech by praising their decision to put America first!

You can find a list of nearly 60 Members of Congress here. For those representatives who boycotted Netanyahu's talk, you can send them an email or call their office. Also, you can tweet these Members of Congress to show your support.