Posted on 02/26/2015 5:01:50 PM PST by SJackson
Netanyahu is coming to Washington next week because Obama has left him no choice.
It is hard to get your arms around the stubborn determination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. For most of the nine years he has served as Israel’s leader, first from 1996 to 1999 and now since 2009, Netanyahu shied away from confrontations or buckled under pressure. He signed deals with the Palestinians he knew the Palestinians would never uphold in the hopes of winning the support of hostile US administrations and a fair shake from the pathologically hateful Israeli media.
In recent years he released terrorist murderers from prison. He abrogated Jewish property rights in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. He agreed to support the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. He agreed to keep giving the Palestinians of Gaza free electricity while they waged war against Israel. He did all of these things in a bid to accommodate US President Barack Obama and win over the media, while keeping the leftist parties in his coalitions happy.
For his part, for the past six years Obama has undermined Israel’s national security. He has publicly humiliated Netanyahu repeatedly.
He has delegitimized Israel’s very existence, embracing the jihadist lie that Israel’s existence is the product of post-Holocaust European guilt rather than 4,000 years of Jewish history.
He and his representatives have given a backwind to the forces that seek to wage economic warfare against Israel, repeatedly indicating that the application of economic sanctions against Israel – illegal under the World Trade Organization treaty – are a natural response to Israel’s unwillingness to bow to every Palestinian demand. The same goes for the movement to deny the legitimacy of Israel’s very existence. Senior administration officials have threatened that Israel will become illegitimate if it refuses to surrender to Palestinian demands.
Last summer, Obama openly colluded with Hamas’s terrorist war against Israel. He tried to coerce Israel into accepting ceasefire terms that would have amounted to an unconditional surrender to Hamas’s demands for open borders and the free flow of funds to the terrorist group. He enacted a partial arms embargo on Israel in the midst of war. He cut off air traffic to Ben-Gurion International Airport under specious and grossly prejudicial terms in an open act of economic warfare against Israel.
And yet, despite Obama’s scandalous treatment of Israel, Netanyahu has continued to paper over differences in public and thank Obama for the little his has done on Israel’s behalf. He always makes a point of thanking Obama for agreeing to Congress’s demand to continue funding the Iron Dome missile defense system (although Obama has sought repeatedly to slash funding for the project).
Obama’s policies that are hostile to Israel are not limited to his unconditional support for the Palestinians in their campaign against Israel. Obama shocked the entire Israeli defense community when he supported the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, despite Mubarak’s dependability as a US ally in the war on Islamist terrorism, and as the guardian of both Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel and the safety and freedom of maritime traffic in the Suez Canal.
Obama supported Mubarak’s overthrow despite the fact that the only political force in Egypt capable of replacing him was the Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks the destruction of Israel and is the ideological home and spawning ground of jihadist terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and Hamas. Obama then supported the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime even as then-president Mohamed Morsi took concrete steps to transform Egypt into an Islamist, jihadist state and end Egypt’s peace with Israel.
Israelis were united in our opposition to Obama’s behavior. But Netanyahu said nothing publicly in criticism of Obama’s destructive, dangerous policy.
He held his tongue in the hopes of winning Obama over through quiet diplomacy.
He held his tongue, because he believed that the damage Obama was causing Israel was not irreversible in most cases. And it was better to maintain the guise of good relations, in the hopes of actually achieving them, than to expose the fractures in US-Israel ties caused by Obama’s enormous hostility toward Israel and by his strategic myopia that endangered both Israel and the US’s other regional allies.
And yet, today Netanyahu, the serial accommodator, is putting everything on the line. He will not accommodate. He will not be bullied. He will not be threatened, even as all the powers that have grown used to bringing him to his knees – the Obama administration, the American Jewish Left, the Israeli media, and the Labor party grow ever more shrill and threatening in their attacks against him.
As he has made clear in daily statements, Netanyahu is convinced that we have reached a juncture in our relations with the Obama administration where accommodation is no longer possible.
Obama’s one policy that Netanyahu has never acquiesced to either publicly or privately is his policy of accommodating Iran.
Since Obama’s earliest days in office, Netanyahu has warned openly and behind closed doors that Obama’s plan to forge a nuclear deal with Iran is dangerous. And as the years have passed, and the lengths Obama is willing to go to appease Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been left their marks on the region, Netanyahu’s warnings have grown stronger and more urgent.
Netanyahu has been clear since his first tenure in office in the 1990s, that Iran’s nuclear program – as well as its ballistic missile program – constitutes a threat to Israel’s very existence. He has never wavered from his position that Israel cannot accept an Iran armed with nuclear weapons.
Until Obama entered office, and to an ever escalating degree since his reelection in 2012, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons has been such an obvious imperative among both Israelis and Americans that Netanyahu’s forthright rejection of any nuclear deal in which Iran would be permitted to maintain the components of its nuclear program was uncontroversial. In some Israeli circles, his trenchant opposition to Iran’s acquisition of nuclear capabilities was the object of derision, with critics insisting that he was standing strong on something uncontroversial while buckling on issues like negotiations with the Palestinians, where he should have stood strong.
But now we are seeing that far from being an opportunist, Netanyahu is a leader of historical dimensions. For the past two years, in the interest of reaching a deal, Obama has enabled Iran to take over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. For the first time since 1974, due to Obama’s policies, the Golan Heights is an active front in the war against Israel, with Iranian military personnel commanding Syrian and Hezbollah forces along the border.
Iran’s single-minded dedication to its goal of becoming a regional hegemon and its commitment to its ultimate goal of destroying the US is being enabled by Obama’s policies of accommodation. An Iran in possession of a nuclear arsenal is an Iran that can not only destroy Israel with just one or two warheads. It can make it impossible for Israel to respond to conventional aggression carried out by terrorist forces and others operating under an Iranian nuclear umbrella.
Whereas Israel can survive Obama on the Palestinian front by stalling, waiting him out and placating him where possible, and can even survive his support for Hamas by making common cause with the Egyptian military and the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, the damage Obama’s intended deal with Iran will cause Israel will be irreversible. The moment that Obama grants Iran a path to a nuclear arsenal – and the terms of the agreement that Obama has offered Iran grant Iran an unimpeded path to nuclear power – a future US administration will be hard-pressed to put the genie back in the bottle.
For his efforts to prevent irreparable harm to Israel Netanyahu is being subjected to the most brutal and vicious attacks any Israeli leader has ever been subjected to by an American administration and its political allies. They are being assisted in their efforts by a shameless Israeli opposition that is willing to endanger the future of the country in order to seize political power.
Every day brings another serving of abuse. Wednesday National Security Adviser Susan Rice accused Netanyahu of destroying US relations with Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry effectively called him a serial alarmist, liar, and warmonger.
For its part, the Congressional Black Caucus reportedly intends to sabotage Netanyahu’s address before the joint houses of Congress by walking out in the middle, thus symbolically accusing of racism the leader of the Middle East’s only liberal democracy, and the leader of the most persecuted people in human history.
Radical leftist representatives who happen to be Jewish, like Jan Schakowsky of suburban Chicago and Steve Cohen of Memphis, are joining Netanyahu’s boycotters in order to give the patina of Jewish legitimacy to an administration whose central foreign policy threatens the viability of the Jewish state.
As for Netanyahu’s domestic opponents, their behavior is simply inexcusable. In Israel’s hour of peril, just weeks before Obama intends to conclude his nuclear deal with the mullahs that will endanger Israel’s existence, Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog insists that his primary duty is to defeat Netanyahu.
And as far as Iran is concerned, he acts as a free loader ad a spoiler. Either he believes that Netanyahu will succeed in his mission to derail the deal with or without his support, or he doesn’t care. But Herzog’s rejection of Netanyahu’s entreaties that he join him in Washington next week, and his persistent attacks on Netanyahu for refusing accommodate that which cannot be accommodated shows that he is both an opportunist and utterly unworthy of a leadership role in this country.
Netanyahu is not coming to Washington next Tuesday to warn Congress against Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, because he seeks a fight with Obama. Netanyahu has devoted the last six years to avoiding a fight with Obama, often at great cost to Israel’s national security and to his own political position.
Netanyahu is coming to Washington next week because Obama has left him no choice. And all decent people of good will should support him, and those who do not, and those who are silent, should be called out for their treachery and cowardice.
[...our administration is nothing but a bunch of Jew-hating Nazis on par with Hitler, Himmler, and Eichmann.]
This administration is anti semite and all this hatred of the left is beginning to boil over, they are becoming allies of Islamic terrorists by ignoring their growth and strength.
Yes indeed.
Netanyahu was at AIPAC at exactly this time last year too. Almost 100 congressmen asked House leadership to invite Bibi to speak at a Joint Session then.
By the way, when Bibi spoke at the Joint Session in 2011, Obama managed to be out of the country and Rand Paul boycotted Bibi’s speech.
Here’s the sensationalistic part!
— — —
Netanyahu is not coming to Washington next Tuesday to warn Congress against Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, because he seeks a fight with Obama. Netanyahu has devoted the last six years to avoiding a fight with Obama, often at great cost to Israel’s national security and to his own political position.
Netanyahu is coming to Washington next week because Obama has left him no choice.
— — —
THAT is the sensationalistic part, and why I say, “Netanyahu was going to ALREADY be here, REGARDLESS!” ... LOL ...
You do know that Netanyahu goes to AIPAC regularly, right?
He was Bibi’s father.
The post is from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page.
yes, but a quick refinement...
the administration not becoming allies of the IslamoNazis by ignoring their growth and strength
the administration IS allies with (actually, part of) the Islamic terrorists.....and its not ignoring their growth and strenth, the administation is feeding, promoting, financing (with our tax money), giving arms and military training to the Islamic terrorists to further expand their growth and strenth.
minor edit that, but had to be said
in other words, we are in even deeper doo doo than we thought
Well, the way it works in Israel is the way it works here too. if an organization campaigns on the “ISSUES” and not on the candidate, then there is no problem in Israel (and neither here). Of course, they’re against the issues that define Netanyahu, but as long as you don’t mention him by name ... it’s not illegal.
As far as those political operatives going over to Israel, that’s not illegal either. That organization in Israel can have ANYONE working inside their organization that they want. That’s not illegal either.
AND ALSO, keep in mind that this organization represents the Israelis who DO NOT WANT NETANYAHU ... and there is a good number of Israelis who do not want Netanyahu ... BOTH on the right side of Netanyahu and the left side of Netanyahu.
There are also those to the political RIGHT of Netanyahu, who don’t want him!
So do you think he’ll win? I’m so used to the Democrats winning everything I’m terrified.
Ummm ... are you saying that Netanyahu’s father was a Christian?! That’s news to me.
I hope you’re not going to say that Netanyahu is a Christian ... :-) ...
I think he will.
BUT we would do well to remember that the last time Netanyahu lost election as Prime Minister (after being in office several years in that position) was when Clinton sent his operatives to Israel to defeat Netanyahu. And he lost.
One more thing ... just for some more information ... there are FReepers who don’t want Netanyahu. I should know because I’ve been told by some of them in the past.
As for me, I think Netanyahu is the best Prime Minister for Israel. I back him 100%!
By "coming to Washington" Glick is referring to Netanyahu's coming before Congress - despite a bitter diplomatic and PR campaign to discourage him from doing so. If anyone is sensationalizing the importance of Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress, it is President Obama and his allies who are absolutely freaking out over it. As they say in the Air Force, when you're taking flack you know you're over the target. Bombs away!
I love Netanyahu. I wish to hell he was running here.
I have a different take on why the Obama Administration is making a big deal about it, especially since he was going to be here anyway, and Obama knew he was going to talk about Iran at AIPAC, and that Netanyahu would see members of Congress even without a Joint Session speech.
I see this as COORDINATED with the opposition in Israel. Their “big deal” and “hammer” that they are beating Netanyahu with over in Israel ... is that Netanyahu is DESTRUCTIVE of the special relationship that Israel has had with the USA. They say that Netanyahu is driving a wedge between the U.S. Government and Israel.
SO ... it’s one thing for the opposition just to “SAY IT” without any absolute proof that this is the case. Without “proof” ... it sounds like political rhetoric.
BUT ... when the White House, and Congressional Members, and others speaking for the Administration ALL SAY that this is DESTRUCTIVE to the relationship that the USA has with Israel, and that Netanyahu is playing PARTISAN POLITICS ... then ... that gives the opposition in Israel the EXACT PROOF they need to convince voters in Israel that Netanyahu is DESTROYING this special relationship!
The Obama Administration is not really concerned about the speech before the Joint Session of Congress. They are only “giving ammunition” for the opposition in Israel. That’s what is going on. It’s all about the election in Israel.
As for Bible prophecy ... all nations of the world will turn against Israel, including the USA. Israel will be attacked and overrun. Two-thirds of the Jews will be killed while a “remnant” will escape from Israel and be hidden in the wilderness for 3-1/2 years, outside of Israel.
There are some serious times coming ... ahead ... for Israel, with this “second Holocaust” being worse than the first.
The only thing that keeps the Jews from being totally destroyed at that time is the coming of the Messiah of Israel, back to this earth to set up his one-world government, ruling over all the nations.
I see your point but I don’t agree. Obama has entered a very dangerous phase of his waning Presidency, and is on the verge of doing irreversible damage. In every movement to contact, the most dangerous point is just before the prize comes into view. That’s when the nerves fray.
Just to clarify, it is your take in Post 33 that I don’t agree with; on Post 34, I fully concur.
I’m also of the opinion that the Ø regime *wants* Bibi to speak to the joint session of Congress.
This furthers their agenda to break the US-Israeli relationship.
By the Ø regime complaining about it, they force Bibi and Boehner to dig in, and bring about the very thing that 0 publicly is against.
Then, it happens and further divides those that are pro-Israeli versus those anti-Israeli.
You don’t get it, do you? Your head must be 9 feet thick.
Yeah, it can work that way, too. I hope Netanyahu outlasts Obama ...
Wow. First, I applaud those in which ESOL and are trying hard to do better. Second, it is partly you claim, but much more.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.