Vice President Joe Biden won't attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress on Iran next month, the vice president's office confirmed to TPM Friday. The news was first reported by the Associated Press.
Biden's office said that the vice president, who ordinarily would sit alongside House Speaker John Boehner during a joint session of Congress, is expected to be traveling abroad.
"We are not ready to announce details of his trip yet, and normally our office wouldn't announce this early," the vice president's office told TPM in an email, "but the planning process has been underway for a while."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
At least partial payback for this:
Why would Israeli officials degrade Israel by humiliating the vice-president of the United States?
What conceivable advantage is there in the Interior Ministry choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a mission aimed at soothing strained relations between Israel and the Obama administration, to announce the approval of 1,600 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem?
Or to add, in insult to injury, that construction on the new homes could begin as soon as early May.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
Good job Joe.
Edited to add
“We will, of course, be publicly condemning any Democrats who don’t show up for the speech—unless they have a doctor’s note,” said Mort Klein, president of the 30,000-member Zionist Organization of America. “It’s really an anti-American, anti-patriotic position to take.”
http://www.politico.com/...
No, that's not a misprint.