Josh Marshall: A Step Too Far

[babylonsister]

A Step Too Far

By Josh Marshall
Published January 25, 2015, 10:12 AM EST 492 views


There seems to be a growing backlash to the Netanyahu-Boehner speech stunt, both in the United States and Israel. As you can see from our current feature story, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren has said the speech threatens a rift with the US and should be canceled. I want to say more about Oren's remarks and their context. But before getting to that, a few other developments.

There is a must-read column by Chemi Shalev in Haaretz which you can read in English. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) gave a statement to Haaretz roundly trashing Netanyahu's visit - both for the breach of diplomatic protocol and for the substance of what Netanyahu is trying to do: blow up US diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Iran.

"Inviting Prime Minister Netanyahu without consulting the administration is clearly a breach of protocol and an unwelcome injection of partisan politics into our foreign policy. It puts the United States in the middle of Israel’s election, which is highly inappropriate ... I also believe imposing additional sanctions on Iran in the midst of negotiations — which is what Netanyahu will reportedly discuss — would collapse the negotiations and ruin a historic diplomatic opportunity. Imposing sanctions now is reckless and dangerous.”

Feinstein's willingness to speak so aggressively is a good measure of the damage caused by Netanyahu's actions. But just as notable in Shalev's reporting is that the speech debacle appears to be weakening Democratic support for the Menendez-Kirk bill to push forward a new round of sanctions on Iran - the bill President Obama has promised to veto. At least in the context of US politics and politicking around Iran, Netanyahu's move appears to be backfiring.

If that holds up, it's an astounding development. It means Netanyahu's norm-breaking behavior and decision to subordinate Israel-US ties to his reelection campaign have managed to overcome - at least in certain cases - Democratic senators' usual unwillingness to get outflanked to the right on security issues tied to Israel. The level of affront is almost unprecedented: we now know that Israeli Ambassador Dermer - a primary architect of the effort to align Israel around the GOP and himself a former Republican political operative - met with Secretary Kerry for several hours the day before the Netanyahu speech was announced and never mentioned it to Kerry. In almost any other case, such bad faith and duplicity would lead a host country to ask that an ambassador be withdrawn.

The Israeli press is also reporting more and more examples of the negative reaction to Netanyahu's move in the US. Most Israeli dailies have items reporting the fact that even Fox News has trashed the visit, with Chris Wallace calling the move "wicked." Even Fox News, etc.

more...

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-step-too-far--2

[BeyondGeography]

1. So I suppose this is the talk of the shows today

Or, since it's turning against the GOP, it's being avoided. (I don't watch the shows.)

[babylonsister]

2. I don't know. Saw McCain

plugging war on Face the Nation, had to turn his drivel off.

[BeyondGeography]

3. If it was Obama's blood in the water

They'd be talking about nothing but.

[summerschild]

4. I'm sick of Israel and Netanyahu.

Netanyahu is a warmonger who can't wage war without US backing so he spends his days and nights figuring out how to get the US into war.

He has no business meeting with the US Congress and Boehner has no right to invite him there when his only reason is to circumvent the U S President. If it is legal for Boehner to do this why does it feel so treasonous? For a congress that is too chicken to even hold a vote in public about engaging militarily in the world, how do the Republicans plan to explain the war with Iran caused by this irresponsible action.

Has any one heard any Republican call Boehner out for this? I haven't.

[Cha]

5. That's what we've been saying since we found out about it.. May this Blowback on Sneaky Bibi!

Even fox "news" has trashed the visit.. that's a little shocking!