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Congress has every right, and even an
obligation, to hear the Israeli leader speak about the Iranian threat.
By ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ Feb. 23, 2015
For the full article go to: http://tinyurl.com/luj58ob
As a liberal Democrat who twice campaigned for President
Barack Obama , I am appalled that
some Democratic members of Congress are planning to boycott the speech of
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 3 to a joint session of
Congress. At bottom, this controversy is not mainly about protocol and
politics—it is about the constitutional system of checks and balances and the
separation of powers.
Under the
Constitution, the executive and legislative branches share responsibility for
making and implementing important foreign-policy decisions. Congress has a
critical role to play in scrutinizing the decisions of the president when these
decisions involve national security, relationships with allies and the threat
of nuclear proliferation.
Congress has every
right to invite, even over the president’s strong objection, any world leader
or international expert who can assist its members in formulating appropriate
responses to the current deal being considered with Iran regarding its
nuclear-weapons program. Indeed, it is the responsibility of every member of
Congress to listen to Prime Minister Netanyahu, who probably knows more about
this issue than any world leader, because it threatens the very existence of
the nation state of the Jewish people.
Congress has the
right to disagree with the prime minister, but the idea that some members of
Congress will not give him the courtesy of listening violates protocol and
basic decency to a far greater extent than anything Mr. Netanyahu is accused of
doing for having accepted an invitation from Congress.
Recall that President Obama sent British Prime Minister David
Cameron to lobby Congress with phone calls last month
against conditionally imposing new sanctions on Iran if the deal were to fail.
What the president objects to is not that Mr. Netanyahu will speak to Congress,
but the content of what he intends to say. This constitutes a direct intrusion
on the power of Congress and on the constitutional separation of powers.
Not only should all
members of Congress attend Mr. Netanyahu’s speech, but President Obama—as a
constitutional scholar—should urge members of Congress to do their
constitutional duty of listening to opposing views in order to check and
balance the policies of the administration.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Speaker John Boehner ’s decision to invite Mr. Netanyahu or Mr.
Netanyahu’s decision to accept, no legal scholar can dispute that Congress has
the power to act independently of the president in matters of foreign policy.
Whether any deal with Iran would technically constitute a treaty requiring
Senate confirmation, it is certainly treaty-like in its impact. Moreover, the
president can’t implement the deal without some action or inaction by Congress.
Congress also has a
role in implementing the president’s promise—made on behalf of our nation as a
whole—that Iran will never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. That promise
seems to be in the process of being broken, as reports in the media and
Congress circulate that the deal on the table contains a sunset provision that
would allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons after a certain number of years.
Once it became clear
that Iran will eventually be permitted to become a nuclear-weapon power, it has
already become such a power for practical purposes. The Saudis and the Arab
emirates will not wait until Iran turns the last screw on its nuclear bomb. As
soon as this deal is struck, with its sunset provision, these countries would
begin to develop their own nuclear-weapon programs, as would other countries in
the region. If Congress thinks this is a bad deal, it has the responsibility to
act.
Another reason
members of Congress should not boycott Mr. Netanyahu’s speech is that support
for Israel has always been a bipartisan issue. The decision by some members to
boycott Israel’s prime minister endangers this bipartisan support. This will
not only hurt Israel but will also endanger support for Democrats among
pro-Israel voters. I certainly would never vote for or support a member of
Congress who walked out on Israel’s prime minister.
One should walk out on tyrants, bigots and radical extremists, as
the United States did when Iran’s Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad denied
the Holocaust and called for Israel’s destruction at the United Nations. To use
such an extreme tactic against our closest ally, and the Middle East’s only
vibrant democracy, is not only to insult Israel’s prime minister but to put
Israel in a category in which it does not belong.
So let members of Congress who disagree with the prime minister’s
decision to accept Speaker Boehner’s invitation express that disagreement
privately and even publicly, but let them not walk out on a speech from which
they may learn a great deal and which may help them prevent the president from
making a disastrous foreign-policy mistake. Inviting a prime minister of an
ally to educate Congress about a pressing foreign-policy decision is in the
highest tradition of our democratic system of separation of powers and checks
and balances.
