The Executive branch is supposed to conduct the nation’s foreign policy. But the congressional Republican leadership i invited Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. President Obama was not so much as informed, so he refused to meet the leader of one of America’s top allies in the Middle East. And Prime Minister Netanyahu took the occasion to try to go over the President’s head by asking Congress not to go along with President Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran, insisting that the proposed deal will mean nuclear weapons for Iran, threatening Israel’s survival. (I suspect Israel is also nervous that the U.S. may be tilting to the Shi’ites in hopes they can stop the Sunni ISIS.)
What do you think about all of this? Whatever you think about the issues involved and whatever side you come down on, is this not an embarrassing example of our government’s disorder and dysfunction?
From Netanyahu warns that nuclear deal ‘paves Iran’s path’ to a bomb – The Washington Post:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu forcefully argued against a nuclear deal with Iran, telling a joint meeting of Congress Tuesday that such an agreement would have the opposite effect of what the international community intends because it would effectively supply Iran with the means to produce a nuclear weapon.
Any agreement “doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves Iran’s path to the bomb,” Netanyahu said. “So why would anyone make this deal?”
Netanyahu’s speech generated a swirl of controversy before it was even delivered and laid bare fissures between the prime minister and the Obama administration. Netanyahu used the address to paint Iran as a sponsor of terrorism that is aggressively marching across the Middle East and would foil a deal to satisfy its own nuclear ambitions.
Netanyahu said the country’s “tentacles of terror” pose a “grave threat” to Israel and the world. The prime minister expressed his concerns about enriched uranium and Iranian nuclear research and development, as well as his worries about the approach taken to the international nuclear talks.
“This is a bad deal. A very bad deal. We are better off without it,” he said. “Why should Iran’s radical regime change for the better when it can enjoy the best of both worlds? Aggression abroad, prosperity at home?”
He was greeted with raucous applause in the House chamber, and was interrupted numerous times by standing ovations.
“We must all stand together to stop Iran’s march of conquest, subjugation and terror,” he said, asserting that Iran and the Islamic State are “competing for the crown of militant Islam.”
Go here for Netanyahu’s speech.
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