Reply #2: Eric Cantor Runs Interference for Bibi

[Scurrilous]

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"Leave it to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). With President Barack Obama expected to deliver a major speech outlining a new (or, at least, revised) Middle East peace strategy soon, Cantor decided it was time to invite Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to deliver a speech before a joint session of Congress.

This is one of the benefits of having a Republican House at the same time that a Likud prime minister is in office in Israel. The two right-wing parties can work together to thwart any Democratic president's attempt to advance U.S. national security by brokering Middle East peace.

The last time this happened was in the 1990s, when Bill Clinton was president, Newt Gingrich was speaker, and the self-same Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister. Netanyahu, joyously anticipating Clinton's defeat for a second term, worked with the Republicans to subvert Clinton. Douglas Bloomfield, AIPAC's long-time legislative director, recalled:

No Israeli leader was as adept at playing partisan American politics, nor as disruptive as the American-educated Netanyahu, who understood the politics of divided government. Even before becoming prime minister, he joined forces with Gingrich against common enemies: then-President Bill Clinton, Rabin and the Oslo peace process. Their goal was to make sure all three failed.

Gingrich was happy to play this game with Netanyahu, but he is more than matched by Cantor, who is not only a pro-Likud zealot but has also publicly admitted that he would use his position to help Netanyahu withstand any pressure from his own President."

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