The GOP Cuckholds Bibi
It was only weeks ago that President Obama’s critics were comparing him unfavorably to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. Obama was naive and weak. Netanyahu was the master of the world of realpolitik. The right wing sent up their prayers, “Why can’t our country have a leader like Bibi?”
They did their best to accomplish that transformation. They invited Bibi to speak to the Republican Congress so he might undermine a multinational agreement which promised to pull the nuclear fang from Iran’s teeth. The Republicans in Congress wrote letters to Iran on Bibi’s behalf. They took his money and voted in lockstep with the Israeli Prime Minister against the President of United States of America.
Some in President Obama’s camp suggested the Republicans were treading close to treason. The GOP in their own defense simply said that Bibi was right, the Iranians would never follow the treaty. Some Israelis worried that Bibi’s total embrace of the GOP was worrisome, particularly after he openly supported his old friend Mitt Romney in the race against Obama in 2012. Was Netanyahu serving his countries interests by burning up the bipartisan approach Israel had taken for years in their dealings with the US? Was it good statesmanship to put all their eggs in one basket given the fact that Israel’s future is heavily tied to continued American support?
The question arose in Israel’s election, but in the end Bibi won with the message, “The world is a scary place and I am the man to keep our country safe.” But that was weeks ago and as Grouch Marx said in “GO WEST,” “Time wounds all heels.”
Alas, the Republican Party has proved to be a fickle friend. Their search for the authoritarian de jour has led them from their fling with Bibi to their new true love, The Donald. Bibi has tied the fortunes of his country to an American political party in the thrall of a jack boot thug. A man who spoke to Jewish Republican donors and in a short time applied almost every Jewish stereotype to his audience. According to The Donald they were a bunch of negotiators who wouldn’t support him because they couldn’t buy him.
Then he announced that America’s immigration policy should bar all Muslims from the US. The policy was so abhorrent that even Bibi realized he couldn’t take a meeting with The Donald. Who would have thought any American politician could threaten to degrade Bibi’s already toxic relation with his Arab neighbors?
Meanwhile, American Jews who lived through the Holocaust look on in horror. Auschwitz survivor Irene Weiss told Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, “I am exceptionally concerned about demagogues. They touch me in a place that I remember. I know their influence and, unfortunately, I know how receptive audiences are to demagogues and what it leads to.”
She lost her parents and brothers and sisters in the death camps. She worries deeply when she hears about Trump plans to register Muslims. “I’m worried about the tone of this country,” she said. “It has echoes, and maybe more so to me than to native-born Americans I’m scared. I don’t like the trend.”
But if a Republican Party lead by Trump is an anathema to Jewish values and Israeli interests, whom is Bibi counting on? Maybe he is hoping Obama is as big a push over as he has inferred in the past. Maybe, but recently Bibi canceled a trip to Washington and when the dust settled it became clear that Bibi wasn’t coming because he would have little to take home with him. It seems negotiation on the new defense Memorandum of Understanding is still "far from being agreed upon.” Way behind schedule. Imagine it.
Could it be that Obama is thinking of Galatians 6:7 in the New Testament, where if warns “Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” And possibly Netanyahu is remembering Job 4:8 which admonishes, “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.”
And while Netanyahu stews in his own juices the world can take great comfort that Iran, a nation with a schizophrenic relationship with the world community, is now without nuclear capacity and Iran’s voters are voting for diplomacy.
A few weeks ago he was the man driving the car with the GOP snuggled up in the front seat, now Bibi looks a lot like Biff in Back to the Future II, right after he ran his 1946 Ford convetable into a truckload of manure.
It was only weeks ago that President Obama’s critics were comparing him unfavorably to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. Obama was naive and weak. Netanyahu was the master of the world of realpolitik. The right wing sent up their prayers, “Why can’t our country have a leader like Bibi?”
They did their best to accomplish that transformation. They invited Bibi to speak to the Republican Congress so he might undermine a multinational agreement which promised to pull the nuclear fang from Iran’s teeth. The Republicans in Congress wrote letters to Iran on Bibi’s behalf. They took his money and voted in lockstep with the Israeli Prime Minister against the President of United States of America.
Some in President Obama’s camp suggested the Republicans were treading close to treason. The GOP in their own defense simply said that Bibi was right, the Iranians would never follow the treaty. Some Israelis worried that Bibi’s total embrace of the GOP was worrisome, particularly after he openly supported his old friend Mitt Romney in the race against Obama in 2012. Was Netanyahu serving his countries interests by burning up the bipartisan approach Israel had taken for years in their dealings with the US? Was it good statesmanship to put all their eggs in one basket given the fact that Israel’s future is heavily tied to continued American support?
The question arose in Israel’s election, but in the end Bibi won with the message, “The world is a scary place and I am the man to keep our country safe.” But that was weeks ago and as Grouch Marx said in “GO WEST,” “Time wounds all heels.”
Alas, the Republican Party has proved to be a fickle friend. Their search for the authoritarian de jour has led them from their fling with Bibi to their new true love, The Donald. Bibi has tied the fortunes of his country to an American political party in the thrall of a jack boot thug. A man who spoke to Jewish Republican donors and in a short time applied almost every Jewish stereotype to his audience. According to The Donald they were a bunch of negotiators who wouldn’t support him because they couldn’t buy him.
Then he announced that America’s immigration policy should bar all Muslims from the US. The policy was so abhorrent that even Bibi realized he couldn’t take a meeting with The Donald. Who would have thought any American politician could threaten to degrade Bibi’s already toxic relation with his Arab neighbors?
Meanwhile, American Jews who lived through the Holocaust look on in horror. Auschwitz survivor Irene Weiss told Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, “I am exceptionally concerned about demagogues. They touch me in a place that I remember. I know their influence and, unfortunately, I know how receptive audiences are to demagogues and what it leads to.”
She lost her parents and brothers and sisters in the death camps. She worries deeply when she hears about Trump plans to register Muslims. “I’m worried about the tone of this country,” she said. “It has echoes, and maybe more so to me than to native-born Americans I’m scared. I don’t like the trend.”
But if a Republican Party lead by Trump is an anathema to Jewish values and Israeli interests, whom is Bibi counting on? Maybe he is hoping Obama is as big a push over as he has inferred in the past. Maybe, but recently Bibi canceled a trip to Washington and when the dust settled it became clear that Bibi wasn’t coming because he would have little to take home with him. It seems negotiation on the new defense Memorandum of Understanding is still "far from being agreed upon.” Way behind schedule. Imagine it.
Could it be that Obama is thinking of Galatians 6:7 in the New Testament, where if warns “Whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” And possibly Netanyahu is remembering Job 4:8 which admonishes, “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.”
And while Netanyahu stews in his own juices the world can take great comfort that Iran, a nation with a schizophrenic relationship with the world community, is now without nuclear capacity and Iran’s voters are voting for diplomacy.
A few weeks ago he was the man driving the car with the GOP snuggled up in the front seat, now Bibi looks a lot like Biff in Back to the Future II, right after he ran his 1946 Ford convetable into a truckload of manure.