Call it diplomatic nicety or anything you like, the Benjamin Netanyahu the whole world saw yesterday was totally different from the one that addressed the joint session of Congress a few months back.
Call it diplomatic nicety or anything you like, the Benjamin Netanyahu the whole world saw yesterday was totally different from the one that addressed the joint session of Congress a few months back.
Mr. Netanyahu spoke as if the State of Israel owns America, and can do what she likes with America. The Republican-dominated Congress who let him did that would be the last to ever publicly acknowledge that Barack Obama is anything but a great President.
The Republicans gave Mr. Netanyahu a standing ovation for doing what no other Head of Government from another country had been allowed to do to the President of the United States. Their standing ovation blew up in their faces yesterday when Mr. Netanyahu in a rare moment of contrition came to the White House with his tail between his legs, so to speak, to more or less apologize and reaffirm the President as a strong leader and the closest friend and ally that Israel would ever have.
Mr. Netanyahu had thought he could basically sideline President Obama to take his case direct to the US Congress and to consequently force the President to chicken out or abandon his original plan to finally sign with Iran a treaty that should further delay their acquisition of a nuclear weapon by no less than a quarter of a century with the consensus of 5 nations with veto powers in the United Nations Security Council.
If you remove the nuclear edge from the power configuration of Israel, the tiny state is one that that can be easily overrun by more populous and richer Islamic nations like Iran or Egypt with effortless ease. The two nations and their neighbors like Iraq and Turkey and Syria were forever put at a disadvantage in the event of an all-out war with Israel and they all knew it. President Obama, by joining forces with the other world powers which include Russia, China, Britain and France and Germany, made sure that Iran would have no safe haven if she were to violate any of the provisions of the treaty she signed. It was a clever move by the Harvard-trained Constitutional lawyer and community organizer.
Mr. Netanyahu and many in Israel have now come to believe that President Obama was right after all and that the security of Israel was better guaranteed by the whole world working together and not by America alone. America alone cannot be a substitute for world consensus. The contrition shown yesterday at the White House in that photo-op with President Obama is one clear manifestation of that conviction.
The last time I checked tiny Israel had in her arsenal no less than 300 nuclear weapons with the capacity to deliver them against any of her enemies in that region at a short notice. Those Islamic nations were deterred from seeking or acquiring nuclear weapons, not just for the fear of the State of Israel but because they well knew that any war against Israel was nothing short of a war against the United States. President Obama has always made that clear. What more assurances does Mr. Netanyahu want?
The Arabs know it is not possible to beat and destroy Israel. President Obama, or any American President, is not going to let it happen. That was why you find most of them throwing stones and using catapults against an enemy aiming an AK-47 at them or moving armored vehicles to roll them over. Mr. Obama as President gave the Israelis the Patriotic Missile which is capable of shooting down any missiles aimed at Israel by hostile neighbors before those missiles hit their target. Barack Obama has done all of that to assure Israel that an attack against Israel is an attack against the United States and that Israel can count on America to come to their rescue should they have to face any serious attack from any of their hostile neighbors.
Despite those assurances, Mr. Netanyahu would appear to trust many of his Republican allies in the US Congress more than he trusted the President of the United States and the Democrats in Congress.
Yesterday’s meeting between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Obama was described by both sides as a very good meeting. Both leaders now appear more friendly to each other and ready to move forward together on the Iran Deal which is a “fait accompli” as far as I am concerned.
The tiny state of Israel is therefore the creation of America and her allies in the Second World War fought from 1939 to 1945. America and her allies, therefore, have a responsibility and a moral obligation to guarantee the safety and security of Israel, come rain or shine.
I cannot think of any American President who could deliberately downplay or undermine the relations between Israel and America. It was very clear from the “get go” that Barack Obama places a great premium on the security of Israel and would never do anything to compromise or undermine it. He strongly believes there are many other ways to skin a cat.
He believes that both the Arabs and the Jews desire peace for themselves and their children, and that making peace is the legacy he wants his presidency to be remembered for and that war should only be as a last resort. It is a position that the Republicans are yet to fully embrace, but it is a position that majority of Americans support.
I rest my case.