By Daniel Rosen, President of the American Jewish Congress
Some members of Congress plan to boycott the Prime Minister of Israel’s address at the Capitol on July 24. They say their target is Benjamin Netanyahu, the incumbent Israeli prime minister who will deliver that address.
But let’s be very clear: They are boycotting Israel, not just the Israeli leader now in office.
That’s the message the boycott will convey to most Americans who don’t follow the intricacies of domestic Israeli politics. They will see the spurning of an Israeli leader in the Capitol building, even as Israel is locked in an existential war that Iran and its regional proxies – including Hamas – have imposed on the Jewish state on multiple fronts. This is an address by the elected leader of the only democracy in the Middle East and our most steadfast ally. (That Israeli voters could elect someone else at the next election is not relevant.)
Subjecting the Israeli prime minister to a boycott in D.C. when Israel is at war and Jews in America and globally face hate and demonization will send the signal that the taboo against antisemitism, the oldest form of racism and hate against a people in history, has come to be diluted.
How many Americans can differentiate between Mr. Netanyahu and Israel? The boycott will make antisemitism more acceptable. It will divert attention away from those still held as hostages by Hamas—Israeli and, lest we forget, American—toward an internal American squabble.
Critics are wrong when they see Israel as a key obstacle to ending the war in Gaza and blame it for the humanitarian crisis affecting Palestinian civilians in the enclave. This situation is the disastrous outcome of the hostilities that Hamas started last year. The war and tragedy – in both Gaza and Israel – persist because of Hamas’ refusal to release the hostages and end the war.
What this moment requires is a show of unity by America’s elected leadership behind our strongest ally in the Middle East. This is the only Jewish state in the world, and it is under attack precisely for being Jewish. Let’s not let our ally down at a moment that matters—one that will be recorded by history. Make no mistake, a boycott will be seen as a victory by Israel’s enemies, and ours.