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Netanyahu has 'More Right to Speak' than Obama Ever Will (de Volkskrant, The Netherlands)

 

"Open conflict over a deal with Iran between Washington and Jerusalem is the greatest gift both parties can give their enemies. What makes Obama's stubbornness even more worrisome is that his track record in the Middle East is not a good one. … Netanyahu is rightly worried. Owing to his accuracy in predicting events in the Middle East he has a right to speak like no one else. That is precisely why the Jewish state stands alone like never before; and all because of a speech, the one area in which Obama has truly excelled."

 

By Dirk-Jan van Baar, Historian

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Translated By Marion Pini

 

March 3, 2015

 

de Volkskrant – The Netherlands – Original Article (Dutch)

At the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner, Benjamin Netanyahu will deliver a speech to the U.S. Congress today. Nothing wrong with that, you might think. The ties between America and Israel are profound. Critics even speak of the two working hand in glove. One might easily imagine the Israeli prime minister eagerly grabbing with chance to present his views on the Middle East. The region is aflame and the Jewish state is right in the middle of it. Bibi Goes to Washington could be the title of a script that the entire American political class would look forward to.

 

 

 

 

Nothing could be further from the truth. For weeks now, the premier has been urged not go to Washington. Elections will be held in Israel on March 17 and the Israeli opposition suspects Bibi of wanting to put on a show at the U.S. capital. Even Barack Obama, who wouldn't think of doing such a thing, has announced that he doesn’t think it proper and doesn't want to receive Netanyahu. The U.S. president and Israeli prime minister have strong mutual chemistry - in a negative sense.

 

Fireworks are expected, as rumors have swirled for months that the nuclear deal Obama is working on with Iran is opposed not only by Netanyahu but by Republicans. This is certainly no secret.

 

The Democrats, who are a minority in Congress, therefore feel that they have to choose between the Israeli prime minister and their own president. All forces - including New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman - have been mobilized to dissuade Netanyahu from making the speech. The Israeli left accuses Netanyahu of having made a blunder and putting relations with America, and therefore the security of the country, at stake. One must emphasize that there will soon be Israeli elections - which the White House would not mind if Bibi lost. That impression was reinforced by Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who called Netanyahu's actions "destructive" to relations between America and Israel [video below]. Talk about partisanship!

 

 

The mudslinging casts a dark shadow over what's to come, and one wonders what animates the parties to take such a sharp turn in a case in which Netanyahu, in my opinion, has more of a right to speak than the U.S. president.

 

Obama Bashing

 

That in itself is painful. All the Obama-bashing we've seen in recent years, and not only from right-wing circles, is damaging to American prestige in the world, which, like the West as a whole, has accumulated some very deep scars.

 

Open conflict over a deal with Iran between Washington and Jerusalem is therefore the greatest gift both parties can give their enemies. What makes Obama’s stubbornness even more worrisome is that his track record in the Middle East is not a good one. He began his presidency with a 2009 speech in Cairo [video, bottom, right], a conciliatory gesture to the Muslim world that Iran bluntly rejected.

 

Since 2010, Turkish Prime Minister [now President] Erdogan has become an increasingly less democratic example than thought by Obama, and in 2011 there was Obama's hesitant response to the Arab Spring. The nadir was his 2013 about-face on Syria when he allowed Bashar al-Assad to get away with the use of chemical weapons, although it's hard to see what America could have gained from penalizing military action that the president himself didn't believe in. The fact is that Obama refrained from intervening and was weak opposing Russia and Iran (both allies of Syria), but it did give him diplomatic leeway to continue his strategy of reconciliation. This resulted in a new fiasco in 2014 during "peace talks" between Israel and the Palestinians, when Secretary of State John F. Kerry fell flat on his face.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

 

The biggest critic of all this has been Bibi Netanyahu, who properly assessed the situation on each of these occasions. He pointed out the danger of a nuclear Iran, which wants to destroy Israel. Then a rift opened with Erdogan: even an apology from Israel over Turks killed during an incident involving the "Peace Flotilla" to Gaza, which came at the insistence of the United States, changed nothing. Netanyahu denounced Western naiveté about the Arab Spring and praised the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who Obama had dropped.

 

Secret Iran Strategy

 

Not that Netanyahu is without shortcomings. The fact that he is regarded as a scapegoat around the world makes the sense of Jewish isolation worse. In his own country, though, his analysis is widely shared, making the contrast with Obama even more worrying. Because even if it's wrong, Obama is sticking to his worldview, and has sunk his teeth into a secret strategy with Iran. The problem is that there is something to be said for a deal with Iran, but in practice there's no indication that the mullahs will actually behave as the White House anticipates. Moreover, the Obama strategy is so complicated and opaque (because it’s "secret") that at least for the uninitiated, it makes no sense at all.

 

For Israel this is disastrous. You would think that a nuclear deal with Iran would strengthen the bond between America and Israel - not weaken it. But with two leaders so diametrically opposed to one another, such an accommodation cannot exist. Not only isn't this in the interest of Israel, but Netanyahu just rubbed European leaders the wrong way by calling for Jews confronting growing European anti-Semitism to come to Israel. Netanyahu is rightly worried. Owing to his accuracy in predicting events in the Middle East he has a right to speak like no one else. That is precisely why the Jewish state stands alone like never before; and all because of a speech, the one area in which Obama has truly excelled.

 

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[Posted By Worldmeets.US, March 3, 2015, 7:55pm]

 

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