http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/netanyahu-undercuts-the-president-undermines-the-us-constitution-and-urges-us-into-war
[links in on-line article]
Netanyahu Undermines the President, Ignores the US Constitution and
Urges US Into War
Wednesday, 04 March 2015 07:12
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi was clearly furious in the wake of
yesterday's speech by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi).
The Washington Post reported:
In a statement, Pelosi said she was "near tears" throughout the speech,
"saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States . . .
and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat
posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear
proliferation."
Netanyahu's speech was made before a special session of Congress on
Tuesday. Remember that Netanyahu violated protocol by accepting a
prearranged invitation from House Speaker John Boehner (normally the
Senate jointly issues such an invite - and the president is consulted)
to address the session - which many Democrats refused to attend.
Commentators have offered several reasons for why Netanyahu would make
the unprecedented remarks he tossed into his speech - including
speculation that he "was betting the bank" that he could steer US
politics and foreign policy, at the cost of alienating the president.
Netanyahu was also taking the risk of choosing to side with Republicans
as a permanent party allied with Israel, along with an additional pool
of Democrats who follow the directives of The American Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Netanyahu's motivations - beyond an ego that is larger than a Macy's
Thanksgiving Day helium-balloon turkey - for his swaggering swoop into
the center of US constitutional political decision-making potentially
include, but aren't limited to, the following possibilities:
He wanted to persuade Congress and the US public to support a war
against Iran that would largely be conducted by the US, since Israel
doesn't have the military ability to fully destroy Iranian nuclear
facilities.
He wanted to embarrass a president of the United States who
supported Israel during its appalling and gruesome decimation of Gaza,
but won't take orders from Netanyahu on negotiations to avoid a war with
Iran.
He wanted to denigrate US intelligence and diplomatic capabilities
by asserting that he and Israel had superior knowledge of Iran's
capabilities (even though many former Mossad heads have disagreed with
Netanyahu's analysis of Iran's nuclear program and intentions).
He wanted to rally AIPAC (with whom he met the day before his
congressional speech) to try to obtain a veto-proof majority in Congress
that would pass a bill preventing the negotiations with Iran from
proceeding.
He wants to ensure his reelection in the upcoming Israeli vote by
showing that he can take on a US president, taking his bellicose
pronouncements to a new level of impunity.
He wanted to insert himself into the US electoral process by
building a firm alliance with the Republican Party - and tacitly warning
the Democrats of repercussions if they defect from following Israel's
directives. (Netanyahu refused to meet with a caucus of concerned
Democratic senators who wanted to have a private discussion with him.)
He wanted to use Iran to help distract attention from the Obama
administration's goal to allow a Palestinian state in the occupied
territories and Gaza. (The two-state solution, by the way, was also
supported by George W. Bush.)
Make no mistake about it: the audacity of Netanyahu's rogue speech
before Congress amounts to an attempted coup of foreign policy
decision-making. It was an effort by Netanyahu to usurp the authority of
the president of the United States. Obama may have made many
objectionable neoliberal military and foreign decisions during his
administration - including, ironically, his tolerance of Israel's brutal
and deadly suppression of the Palestinians in Gaza. However, despite the
tough talk about Iran, Obama has pursued a policy of trying to avoid war
- another deadly US conflict in the Middle East - through sensitive
negotiations.
Netanyahu came to the United States and rebuked President Obama and US
foreign policy and intelligence before a national audience (even though
he tossed in some pro forma claims of respect for Obama), in order to
sabotage foreign policy and ensure his own reelection. These are two
goals upon which there can be no doubt.
It should also be noted that Netanyahu made a deal with the devil,
because his appearance before Congress enabled the Republican Party to
once again evoke the image of the president often promoted by the GOP
and Fox: the image of a black president who doesn't know what he's
doing, and is a threat to the security of the US. Netanyahu received
ovation after ovation in his speech before Congress, even though, as
Newsweek noted, his credibility on Iran was recently seriously
challenged by a leaked Mossad document. The Newsweek article also
includes a foreboding reminder of Netanyahu's untrustworthy audacity:
This isn’t the first time that Netanyahu’s credibility has been
challenged. One of his most memorable embellishments occurred in 2002,
when he appeared before a House committee, determined to help President
George W. Bush make the case for war against Iraq. "There is not any
question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is
advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons — no question
whatsoever," Netanyahu declared with his characteristic self-confidence.
Netanyahu is the Dick Cheney of Israel. If this unprecedented effort of
a foreign leader to publicly destroy the delicate foreign policy
negotiations of a sitting US president succeeds, it will be US soldiers
who die and are injured. This particular war, with a military as
advanced as Iran's - which possesses long range missiles - could also
ignite a Middle Eastern conflict of horrific proportions.
Wasn't that the case with Iraq, a war that Netanyahu so vigorously
supported?
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