Is Netanyahu BACKPEDALING On Congressional Visit?

[Segami]

Since Speaker John Boehner announced that he invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress on Iran, it has become a smoldering story about how Republicans broke protocol by bypassing the administration and the State Department to invite a foreign leader to try to shape U.S. foreign policy - while we're in negotiations with Iran. Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution writes in the WaPo five reasons why Bibi should decline the invite.

Bibi is also facing a backlash at home for his choice:

Michael B. Oren, who spent four years as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ambassador to Washington, has called on Mr. Netanyahu to cancel his speech to Congress about Iran. Amos Yadlin, a former military intelligence chief who frequently briefed the Israeli prime minister on security matters, denounced the event as “irresponsible.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/world/middleeast/israeli-opposition-takes-aim-at-netanyahu-over-planned-speech-to-congress.html?_r=0

The NY Times reported that Netanyahu started speaking to Dems to try and soften them up, but Senator Harry Reid told him that if he comes "it will hurt him" and Nancy Pelosi said it “could send the wrong message in terms of giving diplomacy a chance.” In a good interview with Israel's Ambassador Ron Dermer conducted by Jeffrey Goldberg, Dermer said that Benjamin Netanyahu meant no disrespect to President Obama.

Goldberg: Democrats (including, and maybe especially, Jewish Democrats) believe that the prime minister is sometimes disrespectful to the president, and they worry that your government privileges its relations with the Republicans at their expense. Assuming you believe this is wrong, why is this wrong?

Dermer: The prime minister and the president have disagreed on issues, but the prime minister has never intentionally treated the president disrespectfully—and if that is what some people felt, it certainly was not the prime minister’s intention.

I don't think anyone believes that for a second. They know the protocol. Every American who pays attention understands the tension between Israel and Iran and knows exactly how Netanyahu stands on the matter, so the obvious point of his visit is to undermine the administration's negotiations with Iran. This was all instigated by Speaker John Boehner and Republicans in Congress. As usual, they look like fools doing it.

"..Nobody believes that. There’s every indication that Bibi flat out despises President Obama and if Bibi going around him to speak to Congress as a foreign leader openly undermining the foreign policy of a sitting President isn’t intentional disrespect, there’s very little that does qualify.

And now the guy is scrambling to try to find some way to save his own ass, because he full well knows what the consequences are as the Palestinians decide to take their grievances to the International Criminal Court rather than the UN. He knows he needs the United States, and right now nobody will give him the time of day..."

I rarely write about Israeli politics for many reasons, but this is not about Israel. The GOP is trying to undermine America's foreign policy by using a foreign leader to speak against their own country, and that is flat out wrong.



http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/netanyahu-backpedaling-congressional-visit

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. KAGAN wrote that? the moron who is married

Victoria Nuland, who created major problems with her flapping gums with her neocon daydreams while she worked for State under Obama?

THAT Kagan?

Wow.

one question I have always had is why the hell is she still employed by Obama? I'd bet that she finds the current Heritage group too liberal of a think tank.

[Fred Sanders]

2. CNN is on it, with six analysts!.....oh, just turned the volume up....Deflategate.....never mind.

[randome]

3. He'll end up canceling. There is nothing to be gained by going through with it.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[Jackpine Radical]

4. He'd be an idiot not to.

[jeff47]

7. Cancelling pisses off his base back home.

Going through with it pisses off everyone else back home.

He really doesn't have a good way out of this mess.

[randome]

9. Yeah, the negatives outweigh the positives now.

Unforced error.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[louis-t]

5. I still say he will back out.

[DUgosh]

6. He can always go visit John Hagee church

Cornerstone has a standing open invitation

[cpwm17]

10. John Hagee's group will have their annual summit in July

with the usual winners showing up:
http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=2015Summit_Speakers

Christians United for Israel (CUFI)
[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christians_United_for_Israel

[leftynyc]

8. I think he'll cancel

There are a dozen reasons he can say he's needed at home. I always thought he was a smart man (always an asshole but smart) but if he thought this was a good idea, he truly is a schmuck.

[Thinkingabout]

11. Someone is going to have to mop up Boehner's tears, he thought he had a perfect way to

Stuff Bibi down Obama's throat. Obama decided not to meet with Bibi. Good move.

[kickysnana]

12. Put Putin on the "No Fly List" problem solved. n/t