Vice President Kamala Harris has declined to preside on Wednesday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is scheduled to address a joint meeting of Congress, staying away from a gathering that is likely to highlight the deep divisions among Democrats about his conduct of the war with Hamas.
An aide to Ms. Harris said her absence on Wednesday should not be construed as a change in her commitment to Israel’s security, but was merely a conflict with a previously scheduled event in Indianapolis. She is scheduled to speak at a convention of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc., one of the nation’s oldest Black sororities, and would meet with Mr. Netanyahu this week at the White House, the aide said.
Typically, the vice president, as the president of the Senate, sits on the House rostrum beside the House speaker during joint meetings to receive a foreign leader, appearing just behind the visiting dignitary in a tacit show of support and welcome. But this week, Democrats are turning instead to Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, to sit beside Speaker Mike Johnson and behind Mr. Netanyahu, according to two people familiar with the plans, who spoke about them on the condition of anonymity.
Mr. Cardin, who is retiring from Congress, is strongly pro-Israel and has remained staunchly supportive of the Jewish state even as the Biden administration and many Democrats in Congress have clashed openly with Mr. Netanyahu over his policies and tactics in the war against Hamas.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and the president pro tempore, who is third in line to the presidency, also was asked to preside in Ms. Harris’s stead but declined. Ms. Murray is not planning to attend the speech at all, a spokesman said.
Other Democrats have said they plan to boycott the speech in protest of Mr. Netanyahu’s policies and Israel’s conduct of the war.
And Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, was not seen as an appropriate alternative; he delivered a speech earlier this year branding Mr. Netanyahu a major impediment to peace in the Middle East and calling for elections to replace him when the war winds down.
The Biden administration has clashed with Mr. Netanyahu over Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, the failure to ensure the delivery of aid to Palestinian civilians and the apparent lack of a plan for governance after the war.
Mr. Netanyahu was invited to address Congress by leaders from both parties. But it was Mr. Johnson who pressed to arrange the speech, seeking to hug Mr. Netanyahu closer as some Democrats, particularly progressives, were repudiating him and condemning his tactics in the war, which have caused tens of thousands of civilian casualties in Gaza and a humanitarian disaster for the 2.2 million Palestinians in the enclave.
Erica L. Green contributed reporting.