Democrats rally around Obama amid furore over Netanyahu Congress visit
Source: The Guardian
The White House is growing more confident it can withstand efforts to frustrate its policy of nuclear talks with Iran, as a furore over the intervention of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, appears to be encouraging wavering Democrats to rally around their president.
In the first White House press conference since the Republican House speaker, John Boehner, sparked controversy by inviting Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress amid calls for a tougher approach to Iran, administration officials claimed there was support for their argument that planned legislation authorising new sanctions, if talks fail, would be counter-productive.
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Earnest refused to speculate on a likely vote count, but sympathetic lobbyists in touch with Democratic congressmen claim the polarising impact of Boehners invitation to Netanyahu is making it harder for Republicans to reach a veto-proof majority for the sanctions bill.
This move by Netanyahu has definitely backfired in terms of Democrats, said Dylan Williams, director of government affairs at J-Street, a Washington lobby group which describes itself as pro-Israel but supports a two-state peace process for a Palestinian state.
J-Street sent out a letter to its US supporters on Friday, urging them to warn their congressmen not to support the visit, which will fall just two weeks before elections in Israel.
This invitation looks like a thinly veiled attempt to scuttle the critical negotiations taking place right now aimed at ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon, said the letter. Bibi and Obama disagree on how to deal with Iran, and thats fair. But a foreign leader lobbying Congress is inappropriate.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/23/democrats-obama-boehner-netanyahu-congress-visit
daleanime
(17,796 posts)JI7
(89,182 posts)Of what Bibi is hoping for
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)Cha
(295,926 posts)the gang.. what could go wrong?
TRoN33
(769 posts)flamingdem
(39,304 posts)Just sayin'
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)world wide wally
(21,719 posts)Cha
(295,926 posts)post you got hidden.. talk about thin skinned alert stalkers. They can dish it out but can't take it.. I never alert on their *****.
herding cats
(19,549 posts)I'm hoping this latest stunt will help divide some more Dems off to Obama's side on the sanctions.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Cha
(295,926 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)and Kerry had bungled Paris (bullshit) but Kerry had recouped from his disaster schooling Boner crapola.
"Masterful" for Boner - WTF? The GOPs are trying to f-up most of America along with starting another war. Corporate media are in the twilight zone with the insane GOPs.
karynnj
(59,475 posts)Kerry's speech the day he was in Paris was covered live on French media and was praised for being very good and in American accented very fluent French. They also covered him going to the various sites and laying wreaths and speaking to people involved .. in French. They also were impressed with his message the day it happened - and because it was in French, which they appreciated, it too got huge media coverage - that all from a French poster here.
Here, what was covered was not - the excellent, timely messages on the day of the murder at Charlie, not the fact that the US immediately provided help -- just that Obama did not send someone on the Sunday. On that day, the outrage was more in the US than in France -- and Kerry was among the only people who could not be blamed. He was in India and then Pakistan - not known as vacation hot spots - doing important work.
I don't think the "Bibi thing" was "masterful" for Boehner -- it was clearly cooked up by the Israeli ambassador - a former American Republican operative - and if anything Netanyahu is using him.
mcar
(42,210 posts)Where is Mr. Pitt and his red pen?
Response to mcar (Reply #7)
Post removed
randr
(12,408 posts)that Netanyahu is playing politics with their lives. His intrusion into our internal affairs will generate animosity toward Israel from Democrats and progressives.
It is time for Bibi to look at his own backyard and resolve the issues he is in many ways responsible for creating. I, as one American, am sick and tired of seeing my tax money used to provide weapons used for killing innocent people living under what can only be described as apartheid conditions
Cha
(295,926 posts)The Israeli intelligence agency Mossad has broken ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling U.S. officials and lawmakers that a new Iran sanctions bill in the U.S. Congress would tank the Iran nuclear negotiations.
Already, the Barack Obama administration and some leading Republican senators are using the Israeli internal disagreement to undermine support for the bill, authored by Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Robert Menendez, which would enact new sanctions if current negotiations falter.
MOre
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-01-22/netanyahu-mossad-split-divides-u-s-congress-on-iran-sanctions
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)All those standing for America and the American president should boycott the sitting ...period.
djean111
(14,255 posts)And, of course, nukes in the middle east plays right into the fundamentalist fantasy of the final days.
hollowdweller
(4,229 posts)The way it's going.
Most big corporations donate to both parties.
I would say that Pope Francis has moved the Catholic Church from being the Republican Church.
Netanyahu is making Israel the party of the republicans?? How will that play if the dems take it all back? I understand dems are more forgiving than the GOP, but making a speech from congress against Obama? A democratic congress could come back later and basically cut Israel's "welfare" we send them over this.
I mean if Israel is identified with Republicans then shouldn't they be made to live by the same rules as the republicans impose on the poror and middle class?
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)back him and J Street so far. And it seems a few wavering Repubs.
Keeping up the pressure on Congress should give them more courage.
I am hopeful that Bibi will just stay home and Boehner will have to explain why he tried to undermine the President when he was acting on behalf of the People of the US regarding their National Security.