Democrats planning to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress will be doing Republicans a "remarkable favor" by showing which party supports Israel and the Jewish people, said talk show host Joe Scarborough.
"Let me say to Democrats out there, I would love you, politically, as a Republican, to boycott this. Please, boycott it. Please, stay away. Do Republicans — I mean, do their job for them and show that you're not on the side of Israel.
"And, show that you're not on the side of Jews being attacked worldwide," the former Florida Republican congressman said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday. "Please, boycott it. You'll be doing Republicans a remarkable favor."
Story continues below video.
The White House announced Friday that Vice President Joe Biden would miss Netanyahu's address to Congress later this month, due to a conflict with travel abroad.
President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and the third-ranking House Democrat, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, have also indicated they
wouldn't attend the speech by Israel's prime minister.
Scarborough said Israel's "very existence is at stake and on the line" due to the continued threat by Iran and its nuclear weapons program. He defended Netanyahu's motivation for addressing Congress, adding nobody was "in a position to judge a prime minister of that country or people in that country for coming to the United States and explaining to the world" their need to defend themselves from attack.
Scarborough stressed the importance for the United States to show its support for Jews, following the deadly attack on a kosher deli in Paris in January and growing anti-Semitism around the world.
"If you can't go to a kosher deli in Paris, France, without being gunned down. If you don't face anti-Semitic attacks in England. If you can't send your kids in France to a nursery school without them being shot dead. But, go ahead. Be smug about it. You don't understand what Jews are going through.
"The people of Israel, and Jews across the globe, need to know that there's at least one country, one country that understands what they're going through, the anti-Semitism they face every day," Scarborough said.
"And the fact that there is a country that has promised to get a nuclear bomb and wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, that right now is negotiating with the United States to get that nuclear weapon that would allow them to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.
"There are a lot of people out there that hate Jews."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.