By Rick Ungar
Set aside, for the moment, the diplomatic row being sparked by Speaker of the House John Boehner as he seeks to create two conflicting foreign policies for the United States—one pursued by the President and the other pursued by the Congress.
Boehner’s hubris, in conjunction with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s desire to interfere with American policy while seeking to bolster his re-election campaign, may turn out to be the very political screw-up that will allow the joint ticket forged by the Labor-Hatnuah political parties to bring an end to Netanyahu’s long reign atop the Israeli government.
According to a Channel 10 poll out this past Thursday in Israel, the joint ticket offered by the Labor-Hatnuah coalition currently stands to grab 24 seats in the Israeli Knesset in the coming election—up one seat from the previous poll—while Netanyahu’s Likud Party is holding steady with just 20 seats.
The poll also projects that the party leaders atop the Labor-Hatnuah ticket, Issac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, have an increasingly good chance of forming the next Israeli government by assembling a coalition of between 61 and 68 seats in support of their government.
It turns out that there are no shortage of Israeli voters who don’t care for the idea of their Prime Minister jumping into the middle of America’s internal disagreements over foreign policy and further understand that, at the end of the day, Israel remains deeply dependent upon the United States for critical assistance in the never-ending battle to preserve and protect their nation.
According to Hatnuah leader, Tzipi Livni, Netanyahu is sabotaging israel’s critical relationship with Washington.
“A responsible prime minister who first thinks of the good of his country’s citizens does not do such a thing,” Livni said, adding, “A responsible prime minister would know to work with the president of the United States — with any president — and protect our most important interests.”
If the polls are to be believed, there are quite a few Israelis who share Livni’s take on the subject.
Read more at Forbes
Categories: Foreign affairs, Foreign Policy, Israel, Political commentary, Politics, Top stories, United States, World news
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Hope so! I deeply resent this man.
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He is an America-hater. I’d say good riddance, but I’m not hopeful we’ll see much better in a successor.
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Welcome, bonosrama. I apologize for the slight delay in responding. Initial comments are moderated to keep out spammers.
I like to think of Bibi as Israel’s version of Dick Cheney. Both men are consummate liars who wear smirks in place of smiles.
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Trying to achieve a policy decision about dealings with Iran about it’s nuclear program with Bibi and Boehner being the two leading or trying to the negotiation agenda, is a disaster waiting to happen.
There are 6 countries working on the negotiations, this one should be left to those negotiation parties and the President. Neither Congress nor Bibi needs to interfere in the established process, regardless of how much they think they know better than the others.
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I couldn’t agree more, Ecantados. I, too, deeply resent Netanyahu for this attempt to do an end run around American diplomatic efforts to arrive at a negotiated settlement with Iran. Bibi says Iran cannot be trusted. And I suppose that this frankly insulting effort of his demonstrates that we should view the current Israeli government as a reliable US partner? Here’s a fine one to talk of trust.
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This is such a outstanding post, genvana. Here is one of the truly “big news stories” that has been out there recently. Good job. You deserve a raise. 🙂
Equally disturbing is the unholy alliance that is apparently being forged by America’s radical hate groups, the Republican Party leadership, and Israel’s right wing government.
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Thank you for posting this article for me. For the house republicans to invite Bibi Netanyahu as a guest speaker during fragile negotiatons is a slap in the face to most of the world. Our congress keeps embarrassing us globally. It is clear what Bibi wants. The problem, his actions could risk our national support.
Congress reminds me of a corporation anymore. Focused on increasing profits instead of national leadership.
I was shocked today when the republicans invited the Pope to speak before congress. If true, I wonder if they will treat the Pope like they treat the President?
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You are so welcome, my friend. The editorial stuff is easy enough for me, but I don’t have the time to track down all of the big news stories out there by myself. Thank God I have such great friends and intelligent contributors to do the hard parts for me. 🙂
Congress has actually been more productive since the Republicans have attained the majority. Of course, most of what they have busied themselves with are laws that benefit big corporate campaign donors. Unfortunately, too many Democrats are whores too. But the current system is what it is, and you have to play to win.
I had not heard that the congressional Republican leadership has invited the Pope to address Congress. Ha! That is interesting.
Protestants outnumber Catholics in America by almost 2:1, according to statistics tabulated by the Pew Research Center. But when you break down the Protestant category of religious affiliations in electoral terms, you get a broad spectrum of political inclinations. While evangelicals have tended to be solidly Republican in the voting booth in recent decades, Black protestant congregations, Methodists, Episcopalians, et al., have moved toward the political left:
The male Catholic leadership in America has, however, become more and more politically conservative in recent years, to the point of causing an ideological schism between themselves and the Catholic laity and Catholic Sisterhood. You may recall the brouhaha that occurred between American Catholic nuns and the conference of American Catholic bishops over Obamacare.
The tendency of the Catholic Bishops has been more and more to represent the political leanings of their wealthy lay donors–those prideful, rich young Catholics–and less and less the teachings of the penniless Rabbi. In the end, as one might imagine, God sent a messenger, a man of greater humility and simplicity, to rebuke these wayward priests.
The single, numerically most important religious voting bloc in the United States today is the Catholic laity. And the Republican Party leadership is keenly aware of that fact. They are also cognizant of the fact that the new Pope is a harsh critic of economic neoliberalism, and strongly rejects the neoconservative political agenda as anathema to the teachings of the Christ.
If you think the Republicans screwed themselves with Netanyahu…well, just wait until they get a load of this Pope. Get some popcorn. This is going to be good.
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