JEWISH DAILY FORWARD EDITORIAL: …By so blatantly challenging the Obama administration on its home turf, Netanyahu has further exacerbated the increasing partisanship of foreign policy in general, and of Israel advocacy in particular. Once the glow of umpteen standing ovations has faded — never did we expect to see members of Congress applauding Purim! — the speech laid bare a growing political schism that no 45 minutes of fine words will erase…
But he didn’t talk to a broader America weary of yet another Middle East war and skeptical of military intervention in that messy region. He didn’t show Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China why a better deal, or a military option, is better for them. They are the ones at the negotiating table; not Israel.
That is what has been so baffling about Netanyahu’s approach to Iran all along, laid bare in his speech to Congress. If he’s correct that a nuclear Iran is the greatest existential threat to Israel and the region — some of his own military and security experts dispute that, but let’s put that aside for the moment — then why alienate the very powers that could stop it? Why alienate the White House and European leaders instead of courting them as allies? It’s a strange sort of diplomacy, this lecturing and berating… (more)
EDITOR: Recent polling suggests that Netanyahu’s speech has back fired and the Likud Party will pay the price with a much reduced presence in the Knesset. Yet this may not spell the end of Netanyahu as prime minister given the fragmentation of political parties and so many being to the right.
