Israeli prime minister poisoning relations with U.S.?

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Editor- | Last updated: Mar 11, 2015 - 8:53:53 AM

Anti-Israel demonstrators demonstrate on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 3. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress later that morning. Photo: AP/Wide World photos

WASHINGTON (FinaCall.com) - It has long been whispered in this city, at the United Nations and in diplomatic circles around the world, an axiom which is boasted openly in Tel Aviv—“the Israeli tail wags the American dog.” Throughout the 21st Century, tiny Israel has managed to get the mighty United States to eliminate the Jewish state’s mortal enemies in the Middle East—Iraq, Libya, Syria is on the ropes, and now Iran is fully in the cross-hairs.

House Speaker John Boehner, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama. Graphic: MGN Online

In a controversial speech to a joint session of Congress March 3 which violated all the norms of international protocol, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his case for stopping U.S. participation in multi-national negotiations along with Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany for a nuclear agreement with Iran.

In a congressional address that saw him compare the Iranian leadership to the Islamic State and invoke the Nazi Holocaust, Mr. Netanyahu said an agreement would put Iran on a path to a nuclear weapon.

“This deal has two major concessions: one, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program; and two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade. That’s why this deal is so bad. It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb; it paves Iran’s path to the bomb,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, President Barack Obama rebutted Mr. Netanyahu’s remarks, pointing out that all of his previous dire warnings about Iran’s and Iraq’s alleged nuclear capabilities have been wrong. Approximately 50 House and Senate Democrats—including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders—boycotted the address, in part because it was arranged secretly by House Speaker John Boehner and the Israeli leadership, ignoring the State Department and the White House, as well as Congressional Democrats, all of whom should have helped coordinate the appearance.

Mr. Obama said the Israeli leader has offered no viable alternative to reaching an agreement. “How do we prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon? The path that we proposed, if successful, by far is the best way to do that,” the president said. “That’s demonstrable. And Prime Minister Netanyahu has not offered any kind of viable alternative that would achieve the same verifiable mechanism to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”

House members who heard the speech were equally critical. “What do we know today that we did not know before he gave this speech?” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas). “I think there’s really only one thing: He is a rejectionist. There is no agreement that this administration could achieve with Iran that would be good enough for him.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called the address “insulting,” adding: “I was near tears throughout the prime minister’s speech—saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States … and saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.”

Demonstrators also gathered on Capitol Hill to oppose the speech. “Iran is within the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA,” Brian Becker, national coordinator of the International ANSWER Coalition, told a rally that Iran has the right to a peaceful nuclear power program. “They have the right to develop nuclear power for civilian use, as does every other country on the planet. The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) inspects Iran more than any other country in the world. Israel, on the other hand, refuses to sign the treaty with the International Atomic Energy Agency, because Israel, in fact, has nuclear weapons.”

In two highly publicized prior appearances in this country, Mr. Netanyahu—who faces Israeli voters in a hotly contested parliamentary election March 17—has sounded false alarms about his country’s enemies. “There is no question whatsoever that (Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) is seeking and is working, and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons,” Mr. Netanyahu testified in a 2002 congressional hearing broadcast on C-SPAN.

“If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region,” he said. President George W. Bush led this country into war against Iraq intent on destroying the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” which Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Bush’s own advisers promised would be found, only to find no such weapons. Instead, 4,491 U.S. soldiers were killed in that war; more than 32,000 were wounded; and $2 trillion was spent, creating enormous U.S. budget deficits and national debt; and at least 500,000 Iraqis were killed.

Then again, speaking at the United Nations in October 2012, the Israeli leader offered yet another empty promise, this time using a crude, cartoonish drawing of a bomb. “This is a bomb. This is a fuse. In the case of Iran’s nuclear plans to build a bomb, this bomb has to be filled with enough enriched uranium. And Iran has to go through three stages,” he said.

“By next spring, at most by next summer, at current enrichment rates, they will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage. From there, it’s only a few months, possibly a few weeks, before they get enough enriched uranium for the first bomb. A red line should be drawn right here, —before Iran completes the second stage of nuclear enrichment necessary to make a bomb.”

Since that boast, made two and a half years ago, Iran has done none of what Mr. Netanyahu warned it would do, and in fact has reduced its nuclear stockpiles and capability and opened itself up to even more intrusive Western inspection than is required by the IAEA.

Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses Congress on Mar. 3. Photo: MGN Online

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera has begun publishing a series of spy cables from the world’s top intelligence agencies. In one of those cables, the Israeli spy agency Mossad contradicts Prime Minister Netanyahu’s warnings about Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear bomb within one year. In a report to South African counterparts in October 2012, Mossad concluded Iran was “not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons.”

That assessment was sent just weeks after Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance before the UN General Assembly with his bomb cartoon. The White House agrees that Mr. Netanyahu has been spreading falsehoods about the nuclear negotiations with Iran, which have a March 31 deadline.

“There’s no question that some of the things that the Israelis have said in characterizing our negotiating position have not been accurate. There’s no question about that,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters prior to Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance.

The diplomatic correspondence revealed by Al Jazeera points to (at best) “political fiction” on the part of Mr. Netanyahu. “Well, there was much discussion that came after Netanyahu’s 2012 UN speech that he was at loggerheads with his Mossad chief, Meir Dagan,” Clayton Swisher, director of investigative journalism at Al Jazeera told “Democracy Now!” prior to Mr. Netanyahu’s address.

“That was discussed, and in fact Meir Dagan even publicly said that a war with Iran would be a bad idea. But what is just—I think what’s breathtaking for the journalists who work on this is to see Mossad’s classified documents—a top-secret assessment no less—that is now available for the entire world to peruse and read at its own leisure. I mean, clearly, Netanyahu came and spoke before the entire world, presenting information that was in direct contradiction to the country’s premier intelligence service. It begs a strong question: Where did he get his information from?

“Was he taking talking points from the Washington Institute and AEI, or was he listening to his own intelligence services, who the government of Israel pays to look after this sort of material? So, it makes it a question similar to what Americans experienced in the run-up to the Iraq War: Is this based on intelligence, or is this based on political fiction?”

Israeli leaders seem to have no fear of repercussions from lying to U.S. leaders. On October 3, 2001, three weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Israeli leader Shimon Peres had been pressuring Ariel Sharon to respect American calls for a ceasefire, lest the Americans turn against Israel. According to a BBC News report, a furious Mr. Sharon turned toward Mr. Peres, saying: “Every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. I want to tell you something very clear, don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”

This comment has been denied by Israeli officials, but is confirmed by a Press-TV correspondent who claims to have heard the reported remarks. But another report confirms that at around the same time, Mr. Netanyahu made similar comments to an Israeli audience. “The tail is wagging the dog.”

A video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made available by The World Post—affiliated with the Huffington Post—adds additional strain to the sometimes tense relationship between him and President Obama. In the video, which is from 2001, Mr. Netanyahu—who reportedly did not know his speech was being recorded—spoke frankly in Hebrew about relations with the Clinton White House and the peace process.

As noted in the Israeli publication Haaretz, Mr. Netanyahu seems to boast of his knowledge of the U.S. by saying, “I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in the way.” He also boasted of manipulating the U.S. in the ongoing peace process, as the Washington Post pointed out.

“They asked me before the election if I’d honor (the Oslo accords),” he said. “I said I would, but ... I’m going to interpret the accords in such a way that would allow me to put an end to this galloping forward to the ’67 borders. How did we do it? Nobody said what defined military zones were. Defined military zones are security zones; as far as I’m concerned, the entire Jordan Valley is a defined military zone. Go argue.”

The video was broadcast on a TV program called “This Week With Miki Rosenthal” titled “The Real (And Deceitful) Face of Benjamin Netanyahu,” according to The World Post.

In Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, columnist Gideon Levy said of the video: “These remarks are profoundly depressing. They bear out all of our fears and suspicions: that the government of Israel is led by a man who doesn’t believe the Palestinians and doesn’t believe in the chance of an agreement with them, who thinks that Washington is in his pocket and that he can pull the wool over its eyes. There’s no point in talking about Netanyahu’s impossible rightist coalition as an obstacle to progress. From now on, just say that Netanyahu doesn’t want it.”

The Israeli grip on U.S. politicians is enforced, not only by AIPAC, but by a grip on practically all national Republican politicians by gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, according to Josh Marshall, editor of “Talking Points Memo.”

“The ties between capital, government and (gambling) chips are destroying our vital relationship with the United States and undermining Israel’s security,” Mr. Marshall wrote on March 4, quoting Tzipi Livni, the number two candidate on the “Zionist Camp” ticket. She is running against Mr. Netanyahu as a joint ticket with the Labor Party, headed by Yitzhak Herzog according to Mr. Marshall. “Netanyahu and Adelson conceal the amount of money spent on Israel Hayom’s election propaganda. Adelson is a casino magnate who, with his billions, controls the Republicans in the United States, and here, he controls Netanyahu. And as in a puppet show, he pulls the political strings both there and here.”

Even as Mr. Netanyahu has apparent carte-blanche within the American political system, there are no plans for him to address the people or the legislatures in any of the other five negotiating countries, and there is no opportunity for U.S. opponents of his views, to address the Israeli people, according to a social media message by former Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

“A lowly former U.S. Secretary of Labor (who also happens to be Jewish) has every right to address the Israeli people on an issue over which he disagrees with official Israeli policy,” Mr. Reich said in his statement.

“People of Israel: You should know that the new-found alliance between your Prime Minister and our Republican Party, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and some wealthy right-wing Jews here (such as billionaire Sheldon Adelson), is poisoning the relationship between Israel and the United States.

“Netanyahu’s decision to address Congress on Tuesday to argue against a nuclear deal with Iran that’s one of the President’s highest priorities and also to speak to AIPAC— just two weeks before your own national elections—foists your own domestic politics onto ours. As such, it is having a polarizing effect here in the United States, pushing many Americans to side against Israel, and thereby posing a long-term threat to Israel’s security.”

“Meanwhile, many American Jews who have refrained from speaking out against the right-wing radicalism that has taken hold in Israel—a radicalism that rejects a ‘two-state solution’ and continues to build new settlements on the West Bank, and which we believe imperils the future of Israel—are now feeling emboldened to do so.

“AIPAC does not speak for us. House Republicans do not speak for us. Billionaires do not speak for us. We have been silent for too long,” Mr. Reich said.

In addition, a group of more than 180 former commanders in Israel’s own security apparatus called unsuccessfully for Prime Minister Netanyahu to cancel his speech.

“We called this press conference in order to call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel his upcoming speech to Congress and to stop before it is too late. It is no longer possible to hide the rift with the Americans, a rift that cannot be accepted. We believe that this poses a clear and present danger to the security of the State of Israel,” Israel’s retired Security founder Maj. Gen. Amnon Reshef said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“When the prime minister of Israel presents a speech as if it can stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, he damages Israeli deterrence because there is not a single security expert that doesn’t understand that after this speech, Iran will not be distanced from the nuclear option it is attempting to achieve. The people of the U.S. see the rift between the countries and the leaders, the people of Israel see it, and no less importantly, the people of Iran see it,” he added.

Gen. Reshef was joined by former deputy Mossad chief Maj. Gen. Amiram Levin; former IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrachi; former executive director of the Defense Ministry Maj. Gen. Amos Yaron; and senior former Israel Air Force pilot, Brig. Gen. Ran Pecker.

Mr. Netanyahu’s Likkud Party described the commanders as: “These are the same leftists who supported Oslo (the 1993 Oslo Accords agreed to by Israel and the Palestinians to lead to a peace agreement). Nowadays, they are being used as messengers by the Left, whose campaign is being funded with millions of dollars flowing into Israel from left-wingers abroad,” the Likkud statement said.

The Final Call