Why Democrats Won't Boycott Netanyahu

The rumor that some Democrats might boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress is nothing more than a cheap scare tactic.

How do we know?

For starters, not a single Democrat member of Congress has said that he or she will boycott it. At worst, over the weekend, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was non-committal. All the rumors of a Democratic boycott are the product of pundits and political activists who want the speech to be canceled.

Yes, a February 5 Times of Israel article claimed to see evidence of "growing pressure" on Netanyahu to cancel the speech in a remark by a Democratic congressman that "Israel should never be used as a political football."

But how does that remark constitute "pressure"? Republicans and Democrats alike agree that Israel should not be turned into a political football. Why should addressing Congress, which has both Republican and Democrat members, make it a political football? Did Netanyahu's address to Congress in 2011, when the Democrats controlled the Senate, make Israel a political football?

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