House Speaker Kevin McCarthy used his visit to Israel this week to issue a remarkable threat: If President Joe Biden won’t invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, McCarthy will.
Once again, we’re seeing Republicans flout major governance norms to score political points. If Netanyahu were to accept the offer, it would be the second time in less than a decade that he’d be skirting the White House at the GOP’s invitation. In 2015, House Speaker John Boehner, under whom McCarthy served as majority whip, invited the Israeli prime minister to address Congress. Eight years later, Netanyahu and McCarthy are joining forces again to advance their reactionary political agendas. In a particularly fitting sign of the times, the GOP is signaling support to Netanyahu as he comes under intense fire in Israel over an authoritarian power grab.
McCarthy is currently leading a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel to mark its 75th Independence Day. But the spirit of his remarks during an interview with Israel Hayom on Sunday were far from bipartisan. McCarthy told the paper that if the White House doesn’t invite Netanyahu “soon” to Washington, then “I’ll invite the prime minister to come meet with the House.”
Observing the tensions between Netanyahu and Biden, McCarthy smells opportunity.
“President Biden hasn’t talked to me about the debt ceiling for the last 80 some days, so I think he, the prime minister, might be in good company if he treats me the same way,” he added.
It was an extraordinary maneuver. McCarthy is not a member of the Biden administration, and his party does not control the White House — he doesn’t have the authority to signal the U.S.’s diplomatic posture. Of course, McCarthy knows that. His goal was to undercut the authority of the White House by threatening to invite Netanyahu to address Congress directly without Biden’s blessing.
There’s a reason Netanyahu hasn’t been invited by the White House since he became prime minister again in December. Relations between the U.S. and Israel are at a low point, in no small part because Netanyahu has tried to overhaul Israel’s system of government to accumulate power for himself. He’s proposed a change to Israel’s judicial system that the Biden administration considers an attempt to wipe out a check on Netanyahu’s power; among other things, his proposed bill would let the Knesset override Israel’s Supreme Court with a simple majority. Netanyahu coalition has also recently passed a law that limits the way a prime minister can be declared unfit for office. His angling for greater power — as he faces corruption charges — has sparked months of huge protests in Israel and international criticism, including directly from the Biden administration. Observing the tensions between Netanyahu and Biden, McCarthy smells opportunity. By signaling he’d be willing to invite the prime minister directly to Congress, McCarthy is simultaneously pressuring Biden to give up his objections to Netanyahu and warning Biden that he’s willing to break convention to make him look weak during negotiations over the debt ceiling. The move echoes Boehner’s invitation in 2015, which attempted to interfere with then-President Barack Obama’s efforts to pass the Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu has also been signaling affection for McCarthy and his political style — he invited McCarthy to address the Knesset on Monday, making him the second House speaker to do so. As Israeli commentators have noted, Netanyahu likely saw the first speaker he invited — Newt Gingrich in 1998 — and McCarthy through a similar strategic lens. “Disengage from the Democrats, align with the right wing of the Republican Party, dispense with ‘bipartisanship,’ develop a confrontational approach when dealing with U.S. politics and deliberately turn Israel into a partisan wedge issue,” Alon Pinkas recently wrote in Haaretz, summing up his take on Netanyahu’s outlook at the U.S. over the decades. Both McCarthy and Netanyahu have an appetite for polarizing political maneuvers. Netanyahu, whose office did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post, doesn’t have to take up McCarthy’s offer for his statement to be of consequence. McCarthy’s point has been made: When it comes to undermining Biden and the Democrats, Republicans won’t take any options off the table.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. 
