Why Democrats must stand up to Netanyahu

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://972mag.com/why-democrats-must-stand-up-to-netanyahu/102359/

With more and more people on both sides of the aisle pushing back against Netanyahu’s planned speech, the Obama administration — through congressional Democrats — has an opportunity to reinforce its Iran policy without any pushback from the Israel Lobby.

The pushback against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s scheduled address to a joint session of Congress on March 3 just keeps snowballing. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden confirmed Friday that he will not be attending. That is a big deal considering his historically strong support for Israel and that since 2009 he has only missed one joint session of Congress. In addition, three senior Democratic congresspeople have announced they will be absent, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has indicated that other Democrats may not attend. Pelosi herself reportedly said that she “hope[s] the event will not take place.”

Within the American Jewish community, Anti-Defamation League head Abe Foxman on Friday explicitly called on Netanyahu to cancel his speech. Foxman’s statement is noteworthy because it goes even farther than the position of more progressive J Street, which has only called for Netanyahu to postpone the speech until after Israeli elections two weeks later. (AIPAC, expectedly, is encouraging everyone in Congress to attend the speech.)

Considering all the backlash, which has also come from many conservatives, some are now speculating as to whether Netanyahu might find some excuse to cancel the contentious appearance in Washington. The prime minister and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer have certainly not made any indications in that direction, although Deputy Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on Friday did tell the press that Netanyahu was apparently misled by Boehner into thinking the invitation had bipartisan support.

What a load of dog sh!t. The PM knows full well where the invitations come from...the Executive Branch, and if he felt like he was mislead then he should have publicly made that known and declined the invite. Seeing how everybody knew this was a breach of protocol on the part of Boner you would think that the PM's offic would have come up with a better excuse.



Seriously, I hope he comes and most of the Dems realize it is better to stay away. Now that would be historic.

[Fred Sanders]

1. So Bibi does not know that a formal invite to address Congress comes from the State Department?

Not from a phone call from Boehner?

Did Bibi also disremember decades of protocol and seperation of powers, or did he spit on it?

Those folks in the know about the bigger picture know Dermer and Bibi and Boehner are in a royal cluster fuck and Obama was literally handed all the cards without even asking.


“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

[Jefferson23]

2. I believe it is called, over playing your hand. n/t