A group of senior Israeli figures including former national security officials, academics and business leaders have sent US congressional leadership a blistering letter accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is set to speak to Congress on Wednesday, of threatening both Israeli and American national security.
The letter calls Netanyahu an “existential threat” and paints him as selfishly concerned with his political survival and singularly to blame for failing to defeat Hamas in the current war in Gaza. It also highlights Netanyahu’s ongoing legal troubles, including the fact he’s been being charged with bribery and fraud.
Among the more than 30 signatories are five former senior officials from the Mossad intelligence service, including retired director Tamir Pardo, two former heads of the Israeli military and a wide-ranging list of other former military, security, diplomatic, legal and business officials.
Nobel laureate for Chemistry Aaron Ciechanover is among them, as are two former presidents of Ben Gurion University, Avishay Braverman and Rivka Carmi. Billionaire entrepreneur Morris Kahn joins former pharmaceutical CEO Jeremy Levin among the business leaders.
“For decades, [Netanyahu] has been inciting Israelis against each other, damaging our national social fabric, dramatically harming our defense capabilities, eroding our economy and devastating our international standing,” the letter reads.
“Netanyahu severely harms the US national security interests through his approach to this war, which adversely impacts American policy in the Middle East and beyond and further endangers Israel,” it continues.
The letter was sent on Tuesday morning to House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Pardo, the former Mossad director, last month called on Congress to disinvite Netanyahu, calling the invitation a “terrible mistake.”
Another signatory, Alon Pinkas, who served as Israel’s Consul General in New York in the early 2000s, wrote that Netanyahu is visiting Washington and speaking to Congress in order “to hurt Biden and turn Israel into a larger partisan wedge issue ahead of the US presidential election on November 5.”
A similar letter – also signed by Pardo, Pinkas and others on Tuesday’s letter – was sent in January to Israel’s president and speaker of parliament demanding that Netanyahu be removed from office.
Netanyahu’s visit this week is a highly politicized affair: the Israeli prime minister was invited to speak to Congress by the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, while a growing group of Democrats have threatened to boycott the speech.
”Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal,” said independent Sen. Bernie Sanders in a statement. “He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend.”
In March, Schumer, one of Israel’s most stalwart allies in Congress and the first Jewish majority leader, called on Netanyahu to resign and for new elections in Israel.
There were early questions about whether Netanyahu would even get a White House meeting during the trip, as his relationship with President Joe Biden has gotten increasingly strained during the course of the war, now in its tenth month.
The leaders are now expected to meet, with the timing in flux due to Biden’s Covid-19 diagnosis.
The specifics of Netanyahu’s speech remain closely held with many waiting to see whether it will echo his 2015 address to Congress in which he slammed the Iran deal brokered by the Obama administration.
The Obama White House had been blindsided by Netanyahu’s decision to address Congress after another invitation from a Republican House speaker, John Boehner. Dozens of Democrats skipped that speech, as did then-Vice President Biden who was traveling.
Typically, a vice president, in their role as president of the Senate, would attend and sit prominently on the dais.
However, Vice President Kamala Harris will also miss Netanyahu’s Wednesday speech due to travel, which Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday he did not expect to be a repeat of 2015.
“They [Netanyahu’s team] said he’s intending to reinforce a set of themes and arguments that are not at odds or in contradiction to our policy, American policy, but they’re gonna keep working that speech till the very last minute, just like we do on our side,” Sullivan said at the Aspen Security Forum.
He added that the White House expects Netanyahu to preview “in pretty specific terms” to Biden “what he intends to say.”
The visit comes also at a critical time in the negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza. Senior US officials say Netanyahu has signed on to the framework Biden proposed in May but critics of the prime minister’s have accused him of adding specifics that could thwart the deal.
“Netanyahu obstructed a war strategy for their [the hostages’] release, prevented an essential discussion of National Strategic Goals for the war, and abandoned the abductees in Gaza,” the letter to Congress reads.
Netanyahu is well-known to Americans, having first become prime minister in 1996. Just 35% of Americans view him favorably, according to a poll this month by Gallup, with his unfavorability climbing sharply in the last five years. More Americans disapprove of Israel’s military action in Gaza than approve, according to the same poll.
As Israel becomes more of a partisan issue in US politics, the signatories of Tuesday letter warn of what Netanyahu’s visit could do to the relationship.
“We thank you for your continued support and urge you to remain stalwart allies of Israel,” they conclude, “and encourage Prime Minister Netanyahu to put the safety, security and future of Israel and the Israeli-US strategic relations before his own political and personal interests.”
