Is Congress meddling in foreign policy, or acting appropriately?
The U.S.-led negotiations with Iran about nuclear disarmament are not moving fast enough for many lawmakers in Washington. Speaker of the House John Boehner has even invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington to address Congress in March, an invitation extended outside of normal diplomatic channels. Some feel lawmakers are unduly interfering. Is it appropriate for Congress to get this involved in a delicate foreign policy matter at the risk of imploding negotiations? Or are members of Congress justified in expressing their opposition?
Israel has had many good leaders and always our steadfast support, but the latest caper by U.S. House Speaker John Boehner goes much too far — someone should be punished.
Working against our president in his dealings on sensitive foreign policy by inviting one of the key foreign leaders involved, Benjamin Netanyahu, to speak to congress in defiance of our policies and without White House knowledge or approval is the final straw.
Democrats should get a little backbone and support our president to the hilt on this illegal slap at him.
— Carl V. Flores, Grandview
Since when are the folks in the White House so concerned with protocol?
We are not getting the truth on Iran (or on much of anything).
Netanyahu will be a breath of fresh air.
— Mike Leinen, Grapevine
It is an affront and an embarrassment to our national sovereignty for Congress to invite a foreign leader to speak in protest of U.S. foreign policy negotiations.
Making treaties is a constitutional power given to the president.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has also expressed his support to Congress for their intention to enact further sanctions on Iran. This is unacceptable meddling.
The Chairman of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, stated that more sanctions now “would be like throwing a grenade into the talks.”
Diplomacy is the only productive way to resolve conflicts.
— Elinor Zind, Fort Worth
The president has insulted Netanyahu without blinking an eye.
I believe his efforts to negotiate with Iran have been useless. Iran is able to delay forever.
Let the Speaker listen to the threat to Israel.
I hope the Republicans will exert every effort to undo Obama’s intentions and mistakes.
— Don Phillips, Fort Worth
Why the heck would the newly elected Republican-majority Congress trust Obama to negotiate in the country’s best interest?
They’ve already seen times where he has lapses in strategy when it comes to radical Islam.
Who’s to say he won’t have another lapse when the worst actor in the area meets him at the negotiating table?
We should all welcome any opportunity to have Netanyahu speak to our Congress.
— Ralph M. Gill, Fort Worth
Congress has every right to discuss and debate every aspect of U.S. foreign and domestic policy.
Congress has no right to meddle in negotiating or executing foreign policy.
A functional Congress debates within its body and shares its sentiments with the White House in in hopes of influencing the administration to execute policies in the nation’s best interest.
Speaker Boehner inviting the Israeli leader to address Congress outside appropriate channels is a blatant effort to usurp executive authority.
Netanyahu’s acceptance of this improper invitation endangers U.S. Israeli relations at a time when Americans are tiring of Israeli intransigence.
— Mark Greene, Fort Worth
Our Founding Fathers created Congress as a co-equal branch of government to the presidency.
Congress has always been intimately involved in the formulation, authorization, funding and oversight of U.S. foreign relations.
The power of the presidency is largely the power of persuasion, and if the president cannot persuade Congress to do as he asks, then that is a political problem, not a legal one.
In our representative democracy, no one official gets to decide all our foreign policy all the time.
President Obama is not the first, nor will he be the last president to be frustrated by our system of checks and balances.
— Ralph G. Carter, Fort Worth
If the talks are a way to prevent the Iranians from producing an atomic bomb, what evidence is there that goal is being or will be met?
No one believes that the centrifuges have stopped spinning; no evidence shows the deployment system program to deliver the bomb has stopped; and there is no evidence that after the talks Iran won’t continue marching toward its goal of wiping Israel of the face of the earth.
Sanctions or no sanctions, talks or no talks, will prevent this evil from reaching its stated goal, and we need to stop pretending it will.
— Jerry Treber, Fort Worth
All Points each Monday features reader responses to a question posed by the Editorial Board. With each week’s responses comes the next week’s question. All Points responses are not counted toward the monthly limit of one letter to the editor from each writer. Readers are welcome to send their own ideas for All Points topics to Editorial Director Mike Norman, mnorman@star-telegram.com.
This story was originally published January 30, 2015 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Is Congress meddling in foreign policy, or acting appropriately?."