Editors at National Review Online lament Democrats’ treatment of a staunch American ally.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu certainly has impeccable timing. In 1998, when he visited Washington as a young prime minister, Netanyahu was literally in a meeting with Bill Clinton when the Monica Lewinsky scandal was breaking. This Wednesday, he addressed a joint session of Congress hours before a deteriorating President Biden gave an Oval Office speech about his dramatic decision to drop out of the presidential race just three months before the election. …

… Beyond the substance, and in spite of Netanyahu’s deft attempt to bridge the divide, the reaction to his presence was revealing about the huge gulf that has opened up between the two parties when it comes to supporting Israel, which was once an uncontroversial position. For Republicans, strong support for Israel is as uncontroversial as it comes, while for Democrats, there is a huge split between the traditionally pro-Israel section of the party and the growing anti-Israel contingent, which views Netanyahu with contempt.

At least 80 Democratic members of the House and six senators boycotted the speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is supposed to preside over joint sessions of Congress in her capacity as president of the Senate, skipped the speech, citing travel to Indiana. She is supposed to meet with Netanyahu privately later this week, but it’s pretty clear what happened here. Harris’s team has tried to send different signals about her position on Israel, with reports that she had been pushing for a harder line on Israel, raising the hopes of the progressive Left that they would get more of what they wanted in a Harris administration, while her team insists there is no daylight between her and Biden. If Harris were to sit in the background during Netanyahu’s speech, all eyes would be on her and it would complicate the dance. Whenever she applauded, she would be attacked by the pro-Hamas segment of her party for being a sellout in the face of “genocide.” But if she sat still while House Speaker Mike Johnson applauded, she would expose the hostile attitude toward Israel that has become common within her party.