You won’t believe the response we’ve received from Capitol Hill since we first urged Members of Congress last week to #SkipTheSpeech of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter calling on House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to delay the speech.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Selma legend Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) publicly pledged to boycott Netanyahu’s speech and Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) called the invitation “close to subversion.”
And both the Democratic Leaders in the Senate and the House—Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)—called the speech respectively “not the right thing to do” and “not appropriate.” Pelosi even hinted that many Democrats will boycott Netanyahu!
Together with Roots Action, Jewish Voice for Peace and Code Pink, nearly 45,000 people have already taken action to urge their Members of Congress to #SkipTheSpeech and it is having a huge impact.
During his State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to veto any new Congressional sanctions against Iran while the United States attempts to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy.
The very next day, Boehner invited Netanyahu to address Congress on March 3 to undermine Obama’s diplomacy and build the case for more sanctions and possibly even war against Iran.
Of course Netanyahu won’t pass up the opportunity to justify Israel’s oppression of Palestinians during his speech as well.
But thanks to the activism of people like you, the tide is turning and Members of Congress are agreeing with us that Netanyahu’s speech is a terrible idea.
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