If the goal of House Speaker John Boehner asking Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress in early March was to undermine the Obama administration's nuclear negotiations with Iran, well, that backfired -- at least in the short term. On Tuesday, a key group of Senate Democrats, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez "told the White House they will hold their fire on Iran sanctions until March 24, taking pressure off the Obama administration as it seeks to complete negotiations about the country's nuclear program," NBC's Frank Thorp reports.
The reason why it backfired: By scheduling the speech without the White House's blessing -- plus two weeks before Israel's own elections -- it came across as entirely political. And it ultimately turned into Democratic-vs.-Republican fight. "Israel has been, for several decades, a bipartisan cause in Washington," the Atlantic's Jeffery Goldberg writes. But he adds that Netanyahu's poor relationship with Obama -- including this most recent end-run around the White House -- alienates Democratic lawmakers ("One Jewish member of Congress told me that he felt humiliated and angered by Netanyahu's ploy to address Congress 'behind the president's back'") and American Jews (who overwhelmingly voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012).
Bibi is now getting blowback at home
And the New York Times writes that Netanyahu is now getting some serious blowback at home with the elections coming up. "Yehuda Ben Meir, an expert on public opinion at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said surveys had consistently shown that Israelis see a decrease in American support and a nuclear-armed Iran 'as the two most serious threats, almost equal in severity.' Israelis are highly critical of Mr. Obama, and may appreciate Mr. Netanyahu's standing up to him, but losing congressional Democrats, Mr. Ben Meir said, would play differently. 'Most people in Israel feel or think or believe that mainly this was done for internal political reasons,' Mr. Ben Meir said. 'His base may say he went because of the Iranian issue, but those swing voters — and what's important is always the swing vote — it could among certain parts of the electorate harm him. It might be that he didn't properly estimate the fallout.'"
everyone knows what this was it was him trying unsuccessfully to do to Pres. what he has successfully doing to them with executive order problem is Pres. is smart Beohner and the boyz not so much. the Israeli leader is down on Pres. because he can't get him to saber wave with him, if he had his way we would be knee deep in his pissing match with Iran. i guess he thinks if we have his back we are suppose to follow it into another war he is not thinking of us just himself no concern of the lives and money and multiple deployments we dealt with for 11 years. he acts like we're his big brother and will beat up anyone threatening him meaning Israel.
thank God there are those in Israel that are able to see the political connotations to his actions as well as Dems seeing through Beohner if this does backfire he starts the year off behind the 8 ball and will have a more determined Pres. to contend with i can see his party and the tea people on him like a lion on a pork chop that is his red line and strong winds are blowing it away.
Netanyahu is up for re-election pe4rhaps he's put himself in his own jackpot losing would clearly have major effects there and here.
