History is repeating itself on Capitol Hill.
House Speaker Mike Johnson slammed Vice President Kamala Harris’ “unconscionable” decision to skip Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Wednesday — much like President Biden did during the Israeli prime minister’s last speech to US lawmakers in 2015.
“President Biden, who was the vice president at the time, skipped that address just as our current vice president will be boycotting the speech,” Johnson (R-La.) told The Post in an interview on the eve of Netanyahu’s speech.
“I believe that’s unconscionable,” said Johnson.
The House speaker said Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington comes at “a very important” moment, with Biden abandoning his 2024 re-election campaign, endorsing Harris but still having to lead the nation as wars rage in Ukraine and Israel.
“He’ll emphasize the importance of America’s resolve and our support,” Johnson predicted of Netanyahu’s speech. “Israel is in a war for its very survival. It’s arguably the most desperate time for Israel since they became a nation-state again.”
“We need to have the truth presented,” he went on, “regardless of the political turmoil and all the rest that’s circling about our politics in a contentious election year.”
Johnson also pushed back on critics of Israel’s leader who have characterized the address as a desperate move to curry favor with US political allies, as public support back home in the Jewish state wanes.
“It’s the opposite of a political stunt. It was not his idea — it was mine,” Johnson noted. “We issued the invitation and I would have done this many months ago.”
“In fact, that was the intention early in the spring, but I could not get [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer to cosign,” he added, a feat that took several more months.
“Ultimately, he did not do so until he got enough public pressure,” Johnson recalled. “And, that was a great frustration to me.”
If it stretches another 75 days, Israel’s war with Hamas will reach the grim milestone of Oct. 7, the date of Hamas’ terror attack last year that massacred 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage.
Only 120 remain in captivity in the Gaza Strip, with a third believed to be dead, according to Israeli officials.
Of the hostages, eight are American citizens — though three have since been confirmed dead.
The GOP leader revealed to The Post that he invited every one of the family members of the five remaining US hostages to observe Netanyahu’s address — Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Keith Siegel, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Hersh Goldberg-Polin — along with other staunch allies of Israel.
Those included conservative radio and Fox News host Mark Levin, former Minnesota GOP Senator Norm Coleman, Matt Brooks, Republican Jewish Coalition Matthew Brooks, as well as US Ambassador to Israel Jacob Lew.
Notably absent for Netanyahu’s address will be Harris, who on Monday accepted an invitation to be the featured speaker at the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority’s “Grand Boule” in Indianapolis.
The historically black sorority is one of the “Divine Nine,” like Harris’ sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
But Republicans like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the move was a “sign of the pro-Hamas” bias among Democrats, several of whom are expected to proudly participate in the boycott.
“We will not be tolerating protests and disruptions,” Johnson pledged after having threatened to deputize the House sergeant-at-arms to arrest both invited guests and House lawmakers.
Netanyahu is still expected to meet with Harris later this week and told reporters before boarding his flight to the US on Monday that he looked forward to seeing Biden, too.
But Israeli officials griped to the Telegraph on Tuesday, “The free world cannot afford leaders who are unable to distinguish between good and evil,” when asked about Harris’ planned absence.
“We certainly do pray for peace in Israel and we need to work towards that as well,” said Johnson, who has made no secret of his deep Christian faith since winning the speaker’s gavel last October.
“It is a battle, I genuinely believe, between good and evil,” he assessed. “What happened in October, the vicious attack by Hamas, was pure evil and there is a right side and a wrong side of this conflict.”
Thousands of anti-Israel protesters are also expected to swarm a heavily guarded Capitol Hill on Wednesday as part of an “Arrest Netanyahu” demonstration in support of what Biden had called the “outrageous” International Criminal Court warrant for Bibi’s arrest over the civilian death toll in Gaza.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have perished in the months-long conflict, according to figures released by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between terrorists and civilians.
Even former President Donald Trump has advised Netanyahu to stop “losing the PR war” by broadcasting video footage of the war-torn Gaza Strip.
“They’re losing it big,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an April interview. “But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”
Although Biden slammed the arrest warrant application, the 81-year-old has himself become increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s conduct during the Gaza war, halting shipments of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs to try to prevent an Israeli offensive against the city of Rafah.
The Biden administration paused weapons shipments in early May of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs to discourage an Israeli offensive against the city of Rafah in the Gaza strip — with officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken also lamenting the “high cost to civilians” of a ground invasion.
But the president also slammed the ICC’s “outrageous” arrest warrant for the Israeli PM.
The on-again, off-again strategy has left Netanyahu and his war cabinet “second-guessing” whether the US has its back, according to Johnson.
“The Israeli government, and Netanyahu for certain, believe that it’s important that Hamas be completely defeated because they’re afraid that this might happen again if not,” he said.
“We need to stand with our ally and, and that means standing with their strategy and their efforts, by the way, to eliminate civilian casualties, as much as possible.”
