Arab Envoys Will Skip Benjamin Netanyahu Speech to Congress
Israel’s ambassador to the United States has unsuccessfully lobbied the envoys of at least two Arab countries to attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.
Amb. Ron Dermer sent emails to the ambassadors of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates encouraging them to come to the speech due to “a common interest” in thwarting a nuclear deal with Iran, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported on Wednesday.
The Sunni-majority countries, and other Arab Gulf states, view the Shiite-led Iran as an enemy, but would not allow themselves to be used as props in Netanyahu’s address, Goldberg reported.
The news comes less than a day after Netanyahu wrote to decline an invitation from Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the second ranked Democrat in the Senate, and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) the top ranked Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, to meet privately with the chamber’s Democratic caucus in part to clear away bad feelings about his March 3 speech to Congress.
“Though I greatly appreciate your kind invitation to meet with Democratic Senators, I believe that doing so at this time could compound the misperception of partisanship regarding my upcoming visit,” Netanyahu wrote.
Also on Tuesday U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice called the upcoming speech “destructive” to the U.S. -Israel relationship.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
