Israeli President Isaac Herzog delivers an address to the US Congress on Wednesday amid tensions within Joe Biden’s Democratic Party over US support for the Israeli ally.
President Herzog, who plays an essentially ceremonial role, is much less divisive than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but his visit nonetheless arouses a stir among elected Democrats, some denouncing the democratic “drift” in Israel as well as the continuation of the colonization of the occupied Palestinian territories.
It comes as thousands of Israelis mobilized again on Tuesday to denounce the judicial reform project carried by the government of Mr. Netanyahu, seen as a threat to democracy.
Isaac Herzog was received at the White House on Tuesday by President Joe Biden – who hailed the “indestructible” relationship between the United States and Israel – and continued, during this two-day visit, to praise the “strength” of democracy in the Jewish state, without denying the difficulties.
Acknowledging a “spirited debate” over the judicial reform bill, he spoke of a “healthy, strong and resilient Israeli democracy.”
“The president (Isaac Herzog) is a rare symbol of unity in a polarized society and a safe bet for Israel,” commented the most senior Democrat elected to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Gregory Meeks, on Tuesday, welcoming the fact that he “is working to bring all parties together and reach consensus” on reform.
His visit, as Israel celebrates its 75th anniversary, is an opportunity for the whole of Washington to highlight its “unwavering” support for the Israeli ally.
But it is not to everyone’s taste and, a rare occurrence, a handful of elected Democrats have promised to boycott the Israeli president’s speech before the two chambers of Congress meeting in plenary session on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. GMT, in protest.
The controversy gave rise to accusations of anti-Semitism.
So much so that Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy passed a resolution on Tuesday condemning anti-Semitism and assuring the United States’ unwavering support for Israel, in response to a left-wing Democratic Party representative, Pramila Jayapal, who recently called Israel a “racist state”.
Under pressure, she retracted and apologized, but the Republicans are up in arms and demand that she be removed from the head of the progressive parliamentary group in the lower house.
In a statement, 43 elected Democrats said they “never let anti-Zionist voices that promote anti-Semitism undermine and disrupt the strong bipartisan consensus supporting the US-Israel relationship that has existed for decades.”
Elected Democrats have also asked the House “speaker” to withdraw an invitation to White House candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to testify before a parliamentary committee on censorship after he suggested that the Covid-19 would have been designed to spare Jews and Asians.
Mr. McCarthy, who visited Israel last May and was the first “speaker” to deliver a speech before the Knesset since Newt Gingrich in 1998, refused to do so, while expressing his disagreement with the Democratic candidate.
In February, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed a motion to expel the elected Democrat Ilhan Omar, a former refugee from Somalia, from a powerful committee, accusing her of having made anti-Semitic remarks in the past.
After his speech in Congress, Mr. Herzog is due to meet the elected members of the Abraham Accords parliamentary group, set up last year in support of the normalization of relations between Israel and certain Arab countries.
19/07/2023 10:01:13 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
