We were struck by a recent ad, titled “Wishing the Entire Community an Enjoyable Shavuos,” placed by Queens Congressman Gregory W. Meeks in a weekly publication serving the Five Towns Jewish community.
To be sure, such sentiments from a leading member of the Congressional Black Caucus are always welcome. But approximately two months ago, when debate raged over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s then-upcoming speech to Congress challenging the reported provisions of a nuclear weapons deal with Iran, Congressman Meeks was the only member of the New York City Congressional delegation – and one of only 60 members of the entire House of Representatives – to boycott the speech.
We certainly respect Congressman Meeks’s right to his opinion on the general issue of whether it was proper for the prime minister to have accepted an invitation from the speaker of the House of Representatives to address Congress about a contentious topic without first coordinating it with the president. And Mr. Meeks was direct in criticizing the invitation on those grounds.
But there was something else of great importance in play – something we would have liked to see him take into account before deciding to stand with the boycotters.
As we noted at the time, there were disturbing fulminations coming from the Congressional Black Caucus over the Netanyahu visit, with several members – though not Mr. Meeks – publicly questioning whether the prime minister would have challenged U.S. policy on Iran and gone ahead with his speech to Congress had Mr. Obama been a white president.
Some caucus members apparently based their decision to stay away from the speech because they didn’t want to legitimize what they said was the “disrespect” shown by the Israeli prime minister to America’s first black president.
Plainly, as far as the public was concerned the controversy went well beyond the issue of support for Israel and one’s position on the Iran nuclear question. Here were members of Congress suggesting that the leader of Israel was acting with a racial animus or was complicit in others doing so. We continue to believe this was not only outrageous but also dangerous. We would have hoped that Congressman Meeks and his fellow boycotters would have taken the long view and not been overcome by the passions of the moment.
We are happy to again note that there were those in the caucus who, whatever their views on the administration’s negotiations with Iran and the prime minister’s appearance on Capitol Hill, recognized the broader dimensions. In the New York Metropolitan area, they were U.S. Sen. Corey Booker of New Jersey, Rep. Yvette Clark and Rep. Hakim Jeffries of Brooklyn, and Rep. Charles Rangel of Manhattan.