Jewish GOP lawmaker: Congress should be ‘in their seats’ for Israeli PM

Freshman Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y) bashed congressional Democrats who plan to skip Tuesday’s speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to stand in a unified front with Israel.

{mosads}“There should be no conflict as to where every member of Congress should be tomorrow,” Zeldin said Monday on Fox News’s “On the Record.”

“They should be in their seats, standing with Israel in this critical hour.”

Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the culmination of months of controversy over the leader’s speech and its logistics. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) didn’t contact the White House before inviting the Israeli leader, a move that the White House and congressional Democrats have criticized as politically motivated.

But Zeldin and other Republicans argue that Netanyahu’s speech is vital to provide a counterpoint to the White House’s strategy to seek a diplomatic deal to roll back Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

“The prime minister has experienced intelligence insight that is critically important for us to be able to do our job,” Zeldin said.

“We are a separate branch of government; we represent the American people, who are also interested in standing strong with Israel.

Zeldin is currently the House’s only Jewish Republican member, after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) lost his primary election last year.