Americans oppose Netanyahu invite 2-to-1

Americans oppose Netanyahu invite 2-to-1, but Dershowitz is all for it

Philip Weiss

Mondoweiss on February 18, 2015

Spiegel online interviewed Isaac Herzog, the Labor leader in the election campaign in Israel. He says that Benjamin Netanyahu should cancel his scheduled speech to Congress next month:

“I think it is totally unnecessary. He should cancel this speech. This appearance in Congress is adverse to Israeli interests and will only hamper further the relations between the government of Israel and the US administration.”

By the way, here is Dershowitz smearing Obama as a potential “Neville Chamberlain”and echoing Netanyahu’s talking points. He wants the speech to go forward:

“Dershowitz said he hopes Obama has what it takes to avoid the missteps of the late disgraced British premier, whose efforts to appease the Nazi Germany only precipitated World War II.

“He noted that the president had assured him over the years that the administration would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear bomb, although he remained unconvinced. According to Dershowitz, whether Obama will actually stick to his pledge is highly questionable. Dershowitz lamented that Obama’s conduct has been a source of concern for quite some time, warning that a bad deal with Iran would be worse than no deal at all.

“Dershowitz supports Netanyahu’s decision to address Congress next month, saying the invitation he was issued was well within the legislative branch’s prerogative.”

An important CNN poll is out showing that overwhelmingly Americans regard the invitation to Netanyahu to speak to both house of Congress to attempt to overturn our president’s policy re Iraq as inappropriate, 63 to 33,  and that an even larger number of Americans wants the U.S. to be neutral in the Israel-Palestine conflict. From CNN:

“A large majority of Americans believe that Republican congressional leaders should not have invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the White House, according to a new CNN/ORC survey.”

“The nationwide poll, released Tuesday, shows 63% of Americans say it was a bad move for congressional leadership to extend the invitation without giving President Barack Obama a heads up that it was coming. Only 33% say it was the right thing to do.”

“The endgame on Iran is coming, and that’s what’s driving this,” Aaron David Miller says to Wolf Blitzer, at the link. (One pro Israel guy talking to another, that’s the discourse.)

The CNN poll– 1000 people between Feb. 12-15–  also shows greater distance from Israel among young people.

“But Americans overall believe the U.S. should stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with 66% in the new poll advocating the U.S. remain neutral. Of those who do support picking a side, the majority, 29%, back Israel, while only 2% support Palestine…

“And a significant age gap suggests U.S. sentiment may, in the long term, be moving further in favor of neutrality in the conflict. While 56% of those age 50 or older believe the U.S. should stay out of the Israeli-Palestinian fight, that number skyrockets to 75% of Americans under age 50.”

Dennis Ross seems to be taking the Obama administration’s side, commenting in D.C. at the Institute for National Security Studies.

The New York Times has a piece up (echoing the Washington Post’s David Ignatius) saying that the U.S. is freezing Netanyahu out on details of its diplomatic plans. And why the hell wouldn’t you, if the man is coming to torpedo your policy? David Sanger reports:

“With the Obama administration racing to negotiate the outlines of a nuclear deal with Iran by the end of March, aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel have charged in recent days that they are being deliberately left in the dark about the details of the talks. The Americans have said that is untrue, but even one of Washington’s closest negotiating partners reports being warned about being too open with the Israelis, “because whatever we say may be used in a selective way.”

“The tensions between the United States and Israel over negotiating with Tehran have a long and twisted history, and they plunged to a new low when Mr. Netanyahu engineered an invitation to address a joint meeting of Congress, in less than two weeks, to warn against a “bad deal.”

“Now, with Mr. Netanyahu maneuvering to survive a March 17 election, and Mr. Obama pressing for a breakthrough agreement that could end three decades of enmity with Iran and reduce the chances of a military confrontation, it seems that Washington and Jerusalem are engaging in the diplomatic equivalent of posting notes to each other on the refrigerator door.”

Netanyahu continues to be great copy, though. Slate:

“Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara spent $68,000 in two years on makeup, hairstyling, and “presentation,” a report by the country’s comptroller says.”

This on top of the bottle-deposit scandal. Delish:

“It emerged on Wednesday [late January] that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, kept thousands of shekels from deposits on empty bottles that were returned, on her orders, to supermarkets in Jerusalem over the course of several years even though the bottle deposits were state property.”

Mort Klein of the Zionist Organization of America on the Steve Malzberg show last week spoke of the pressure on Netanyahu to cancel. Missed this:

“The odds are 50/50 that he will come and 50/50 he’ll back out. He’s under enormous pressure now from many political people and Jewish leaders.”

That was before Netanyahu doubled down, said he was coming. Here’s some of his advance work, on twitter:

“This isn’t a partisan issue. It isn’t a Democratic issue; it’s not a Republican issue. It’s an Israeli issue. It’s an American issue.”

And:

“It’s a global issue. We believe the current proposal by the P5+1 to Iran is dangerous to Israel, to the region and the peace of the world.”

I’m not going to believe that till Jeffrey Goldberg says so.

Also folks keep sending me this link to a story that the Obama administration is giving it to Israel by declassifying a document about Israeli nukes from 1987. Mark Gaffney says Obama is playing hardball with Israel, at last.

Finally. After many years of official hypocrisy, a US president appears to be playing hardball with Israel. The other day, the US government declassified a 1987 report documenting Israel’s secret nuclear weapons program.

Dubious in Dubuque– I’m told that the same doc showed up in a 1989 NYT story.

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