Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress on March 3 was unprecedented in many ways.
- It constituted a major breach of protocol, in that it was the first time the Speaker of the House has extended such an invitation without consulting the Administration or the opposition party.
- It took place just two weeks prior to national elections in the foreign leader’s home country, thereby giving the impression of an endorsement of his campaign by what Netanyahu noted was “the most important legislative body in the world.”
- An invitation to speak before a joint session of Congress is a rare honor. Indeed, the only other foreign leader besides Netanyahu to appear before such a joint session of Congress on three occasions was Winston Churchill. Underscoring the high regard Congress has for the right-wing Israeli leader, Speaker of the House John Boehner presented him with a bust of the late British prime minister.
- Most strikingly, Netanyahu is the only foreign leader to have been invited to address a joint session of Congress with the express purpose of undermining U.S. foreign policy: in this case, the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, currently entering their sensitive final stages.
Some pundits have speculated on the reaction if the Democrats had invited French president Jacques Chirac to criticize President George W. Bush’s Iraq policy, or Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to criticize President Ronald Reagan’s Central America policy.