By Annie Karni

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will be absent from the rostrum.

The rows of seats on the Democratic side of the House chamber will be conspicuously emptier than those on the Republican side.

And tensions are running so high that House Speaker Mike Johnson has threatened to have anyone who causes a disturbance on the floor or in the gallery above arrested.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel arrives on Capitol Hill on Wednesday (24) afternoon to address a joint meeting of Congress, he will confront a legislative body divided over his leadership in the face of international censure over the war in the Gaza Strip, with some showing open hostility to the government of a country that is supposed to be among the United States’ closest allies.

“I will seek to anchor the bipartisan support that is so important for Israel,” Netanyahu said before departing Israel for his visit to Washington.

In reality, his visit will underscore the rifts in Congress, particularly among Democrats, over the Israel-Hamas war at a moment when the party is seeking to unite around Harris as its presumptive presidential nominee. She declined to preside over Netanyahu’s speech, as is traditional for the vice president, citing a scheduling conflict.

She is only the most high-profile Democrat who will be absent — empty seats on one side of the chamber will represent the well of anger from the party’s progressive base about Netanyahu’s conduct of the war with Hamas.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, said she would not be attending the speech for the simple reason that she thinks Netanyahu is a “war criminal” for his tactics in the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza and caused a humanitarian disaster.

So does Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. and the sole Palestinian American in Congress. “It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress,” she said in a statement. “He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.”

She added: “It is a sad day for our democracy when my colleagues will smile for a photo op with a man who is actively committing genocide.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, another progressive Democrat who has condemned Israel’s handling of the war, said she would not be present and would be giving her guest tickets to family members of the hostages. (Omar, who has long been an outspoken critic of Israel, is facing a primary challenge at home from a moderate Democrat who has placed her views on Israel at the centre of his campaign.)

“I detest what Netanyahu is doing, and I detest his leadership,” said Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost, D-Fla., who also said he would skip the speech.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, was planning to stay away, and the list of Democratic no-shows was growing by the hour on Tuesday (23) afternoon. Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., stared blankly at a reporter on Tuesday when pressed twice about whether she planned to attend and refused to answer the question.

And Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a former speaker, also gave word on Wednesday that she would skip the speech and instead meet with Israeli families affected by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Earlier this summer, Pelosi said she did not think that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, the majority leader, who has been sharply critical of Netanyahu, should have added his name to the invitation in the first place.

In the Senate, several members of the Democratic caucus plan to skip the address, including Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 leader, and Patty Murray of Washington, the president pro tempore.

“I will stand by Israel, but I will not stand and cheer its current prime minister,” Durbin said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also planned to abstain. In an interview, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said he was skipping, saying of Netanyahu: “I don’t want to be part of a political prop in this act of deception, because he’s not the great guardian of the US-Israel relationship.”

Even some Democrats who planned to go made it clear it was not an easy decision.

“The address is the next step in a long line of manipulative bad-faith efforts by Republicans to further politicize the US-Israel relationship for partisan gain,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, in a scathing statement in which he said he was only going out of respect for the state of Israel, not for Netanyahu.

Police fortified the Capitol grounds on Wednesday anticipating protests, and a group of congressional staff aides planned to hold what it called a “walkout against war crimes” while Netanyahu speaks, circulating a flyer on Tuesday that said, “Staff say kick the war criminal out of our Capitol”.

The divide is not an entirely new dynamic for Netanyahu, who has long had a fraught relationship with congressional Democrats. When he addressed Congress in 2015 as President Barack Obama’s administration was working to strike a nuclear deal with Iran he vehemently opposed it, at least 58 Democrats boycotted his speech. That year, Netanyahu was invited by Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, without informing the Obama White House.

This year, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden and Harris during his stay in Washington. And while Johnson, R-La., spearheaded the invitation to Capitol Hill, all four top congressional leaders — including the two Democrats, however reluctantly — extended it.

That does not mean they are all thrilled to host him. Schumer earlier this year called for Netanyahu to step down and for new elections in Israel. In response, Netanyahu assailed Schumer in a closed-door virtual speech to Senate Republicans.

Schumer at the time refused to allow Netanyahu to make a similar address to Senate Democrats, arguing that it was not helpful to Israel for the prime minister to address American lawmakers in a partisan fashion.

He has since said that he joined the invitation for Netanyahu to address Congress because, “America’s relationship with Israel is ironclad and transcends one person or prime minister.”

It was Johnson who pushed for Netanyahu’s visit to the Capitol, eager to hug him and his government close at a time when Democrats have been bitterly divided over his policies and his tactics in the war.

“It has never been more important than it is right now for us to stand with our closest ally in the Middle East,” Johnson said Tuesday, castigating Harris and other Democrats for missing the speech.

“She needs to be held accountable for that,” Johnson said of the vice president. “The idea that they’re making political calculations when our ally is in such dire straits fighting for its very survival and fighting back against the horrific attack of Oct. 7 is unconscionable to us.”

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, was also planning to miss the speech because he had “duties to fulfil” on the campaign trail, according to Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, though neither Johnson nor any other Republican spoke up on Tuesday to criticize him for it.

A group of former Israel intelligence and security officials wrote to congressional leaders on Monday (22) outlining “grave concerns” about the damage they argued the speech would do to the shared objectives of Israel and the United States.

“Netanyahu has lost the support of the Israeli people and is trying to shore up his domestic coalition through a show of force in the United States,” said the letter, which was signed by more than 30 former senior Israeli officials, ambassadors and business leaders. Signers included Tamir Pardo, the former director of the Mossad, and Dan Halutz, the former chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces. The group noted that Congress would be hosting “a leader without a mandate and one who is facing prosecution for major crimes.”

Democrats who planned to attend said it was important to show support for Israel even if one held a low view of its current leader and government.

“The Republicans are going to drive a wedge between our caucus, and they’ve been trying to do that with this issue for months,” said Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla. “My members should come. It’s not about a particular leader; it’s about the relationship with the country.”

At least one Republican joined in the protest. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a libertarian lawmaker who opposes foreign aid and U.S. involvement in overseas military conflicts, denounced the event on Wednesday as “political theatre,” saying on social media that “the purpose of having Netanyahu address Congress is to bolster his political standing in Israel.”

-New York Times