At this point, the list of lawmakers who will boycott Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Iran speech to a joint session of Congress on March 3 is in flux. New York’s senior Democratic senator, Charles Schumer, will be attending, and that is a very big deal.
Indeed, there are signs the boycott may yet fizzle out, especially in light of the stunning news that the administration appears prepared to enter into an agreement with Iran that will effectively allow the Iranians free rein to develop their nuclear program without restraints after a period of 10 years.
Former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman, writing in the Washington Post on Sunday, provided one of the clearest and most compelling analyses we’ve seen of the importance of the prime minister’s speech.
According to Mr. Lieberman, members of Congress should attend the speech because the fundamental issue here is determining how best to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, not how to make political hay or engage in some contest over partisan and political loyalty.
And he stressed the importance of Congress making it plain that it has significant constitutional responsibilities in the area of foreign affairs.
Mr. Lieberman noted that Mr. Netanyahu will, in a very real sense, also be speaking on behalf of several Arab countries (and the United States, for that matter), all of whom would face an unsettled future were Iran to attain its nuclear goals and other nations in the region scrambled to counter Iranian power.
Finally, Mr. Lieberman argued that over time Iran would develop long-range missiles capable of reaching well beyond the Middle East with a nuclear payload. The destabilizing effect would be enormous.
Mr. Lieberman’s views should be required reading for wavering members of Congress – as well as for senior administration officials.