The Obama Administration: Netanyahu’s Worse Nightmare So Far

…by Jonas E. Alexis

Benjamin Netanyahu should have refused the invitation to speak to Congress, and there is no doubt that he has angered both friends and foes.[1] In fact, the vast majority of Americans do not want this man to speak to Congress.[2] American Jews also thought that Netanyahu should stay in Tel Aviv,[3] perhaps enjoying his kosher food.

Get this: Abraham Foxman—yes, Foxman!—initially came out of the closet and declared that Netanyahu should stay home.

“It’s a tragedy of unintended consequences,” Foxman said. “One needs to restart, and it needs a mature adult statement that this was not what we intended.” The upcoming speech “has been hijacked by politics,” and “Now is a time to recalibrate, restart and find a new platform and new timing to take away the distractions.”[4]

In the same vein, former Vermont governor and Democratic chairman Howard Dean said that Netanyahu’s speech will be “a stupid thing to do,” and it will harm “U.S.-Israeli relations greatly.”[5] “I don’t trust Netanyahu,” Dean continued to say. “I think he’s not served Israel well.”[6] Dean also gave this powerful argument:

“It’s outrageous what’s going on. Imagine Obama going to Israel two weeks before the elections and giving a speech to the Knesset where he told the Israelis how they should run their foreign policy. I think [Republican House Speaker John] Boehner was just trying to get some political advantage. I think he made a mistake but the guy who really made a mistake was Netanyahu by accepting.”[7]

Foxman later realized that the debacle seemed to have been a bad omen for Netanyahu, and Foxman is now urging both Democrats and Republicans to attend the speech.[8] Who has already answered Foxman’s call? You guessed it: Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush,[9] a pawn in the Zionist cell.

Whether Netanyahu cancels the invitation or not, he has created an uproar that is working feverishly against the Zionist movement—or at least against Netanyahu himself. For example,

“The European Union is preparing new sanctions against Israeli settlements which are to be enacted following the national election…”[10]

Something worse is under way. The New York Times itself reported:

“Jeremy Bird, the architect of the grass-roots and online organizing efforts that powered President Obama’s presidential campaigns from Chicago, is advising a similar operation in Tel Aviv. But this time it is focused on ousting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

“His consulting work for the group V15 — an independent Israeli organization that does not support specific candidates but is campaigning to replace Israel’s current government — has added yet another political layer to the diplomatic mess surrounding Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to address a joint meeting of Congress next week on Iran.”[11]

The New York Times said that “There is no evidence to suggest that Mr. Obama or any of his senior aides had anything to do with the move by his former top campaign official, who has never worked at the White House, to join the effort to defeat Mr. Netanyahu.”[12]

But it is not farfetched to say that Obama would not mind approving the initiative. After all, didn’t the administration call the mad man in Tel Aviv a “chickenshit”? What do smart people do with a “chickenshit”? Do they place that thing on a political pedestal?

 The goal of Bird’s organization is to propel “mainstream Israelis and Palestinians…toward a two-state solution.”[13] Again, the Obama administration would not say no to such an enterprise. In fact, Netanyahu has rejected the two-state solution,[14] and the Obama administration would like to execute it.

In any event, Bird, who started his work in Israel in 2013, thinks that people are responding to his message in Israel:

“We’re witnessing something special happening in Israel right now: There’s a groundswell of organic energy as more than 10,000 supporters are coming together to have a voice in their country.

“V15’s ‘efforts are already paying off as they have reached out to more than 200,000 targeted voters, both in person and on the phone, about the need for change in Israel.’”^[15]

Of course, the mad man in Tel Aviv is not too happy about what Bird is doing:

“The effort has angered Mr. Netanyahu and his allies in Israel, who unsuccessfully sought a court injunction against V15, arguing it was violating Israeli election law by accepting foreign donations. Likud withdrew the request last week, citing difficulty in proving the charge.”[16]

Now here is the rub:

“In a letter to the department last month that prominently mentioned Mr. Bird and his ties to Mr. Obama, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Representative Lee Zeldin of New York, both Republicans, said they were concerned that American taxpayer money was being used to influence the Israeli elections and unseat Mr. Netanyahu.”[17]

Cruz’s accusations turned out to be baseless. But for the sake of argument, let us suppose that they were true. We would therefore conclude that Obama is certainly doing something wrong here.

But my question to Cruz is this: will he write a letter to the department saying that we ought to stop supporting Israel with at least $3 billion every year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ksQ-Dud7A

If Cruz is not willing to send the department a letter regarding this very issue, then Ted Cruz needs to shut up. If Cruz is not willing to tell Netanyahu that the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost Americans at least six trillion dollars,[18] then he needs take a back seat and zip his lips.

[1] Barak Ravid, “Consuls in U.S. warn: Israel’s friends fear Netanyahu’s speech to Congress will harm ties,” Haaretz, February 5, 2015.

[2] “Poll: Nearly 2/3 of Americans say Netanyahu Congress speech a ‘bad move,’” Haaretz, February 18, 2015.

[3] Benjy Cannon, “American Jews, speak out against Netanyahu’s policies,” Haaretz, February 18, 2015.

[4] Quoted in Nathan Guttman, “ADL’s Abe Foxman to Netanyahu: Cancel Congress speech,” Haaretz, February 6, 2015.

[5] Chemi Shalev, “Howard Dean calls Netanyahu a ‘disaster,’ terms his Congress speech ‘stupid,’” Haaretz, February 18, 2015.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] “ADL calls for bipartisan support on Netanyahu’s Congress speech,” Haaretz, February 25, 2015.

[9] Steve Holland and Emily Stephenson, “Jeb Bush ‘eager to hear’ Netanyahu’s Congress speech, surprised at White House reaction,” Haaretz, February 19, 2015.

[10] “Report: EU planning to step up sanctions on Israeli settlements after election,” Haaretz, February 10, 2015.

[11] Julie Hirschfeld Davis, “Former Obama Campaign Aide Now Works to Oust Netanyahu,” NY Times, February 27, 2015.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Emily Greenhouse, “Obama’s Grassroots Ambassador In Tel Aviv,” Bloomberg, January 28, 2015.

[14] For a recent development, see Akiva Eldar, “Netanyahu Has Rejected a Two-State Solution,” U.S. News & World Report, February 26, 2015.

[15] Davis, “Former Obama Campaign Aide Now Works to Oust Netanyahu,” NY Times, February 27, 2015..

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] See for example Ernesto Londono, “Study: Iraq, Afghan war costs to top $4 trillion,” Washington Post, March 28, 2013; “Iraq War Cost U.S. More Than $2 Trillion, Could Grow to $6 Trillion, Says Watson Institute Study,” Huffington Post, March 14, 2013; Bob Dreyfuss, “The $6 Trillion Wars,” The Nation, March 29, 2013.

Jonas E. Alexis, Assistant Editor

Jonas E. Alexis has degrees in mathematics and philosophy. He studied education at the graduate level. His main interests include U.S. foreign policy, the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the history of ideas. He is the author of the new book Zionism vs. the West: How Talmudic Ideology is Undermining Western Culture. He teaches mathematics in South Korea.

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