Foreign Policy Ought to Seem Bi-Partisan

I have always wondered about foreign leaders coming to speak to joint sessions of Congress.  It happens quite regularly from Winston Churchill addressing Congress twice during WWII.  Heads of State from all over the world have spoken to Joint Sessions of Congress and it would seem to be a reasonable part of our diplomatic process. It's a dance, usually that includes a State Visit and common ground.

This does not seem to be the case in Israel's Prime Minister talk to Congress which is scheduled for March.  The following is from a post on Facebook by The VOX.

Here is the backstory: On Wednesday, Boehner announced that he had invited Netanyahu to come speak to a joint session of Congress in late February (later pushed to early March) on Obama's nuclear negotiations with Iran, which both Boehner and Netanyahu oppose, and which Republicans are seeking to blow up by forcing new, deal-killing sanctions on Iran. What made this such a remarkable breach is that Boehner had reached over Obama to make the invitation, which he and Netanyahu kept secret from the White House. That is a major breach in US foreign policy, which is supposed to be unified; things like official visits by heads of state almost always go through the White House.

Perhaps worse, Republicans are letting a foreign leader use the floor of Congress to bash the American president, thus not just allowing but helping a foreign country meddle in American foreign policy. (This is not the first time either. Republicans invited Netanyahu to speak to Congress in 2011, an opportunity he also used to lambast Obama.)

For his part, Netanyahu is once again attempting to undermine the American president who is by far his most important ally, and is using Congress as a campaign stop on his own bid for reelection in Israel's March elections.