I’ve been reading through your responses to my earlier post on the Netanyahu/Boehner Pact and the speech imbroglio. The question many of you are asking is, Will it matter? Will it have an effect? The simple answer is, I don’t know. Unfortunately, that’s the complicated answer too: I don’t know. With anything to do with Israeli politics in the last quarter century, an important first rule of thumb is: do not underestimate Benjamin Netanyahu. The man is a scoundrel and deeply damaging to Israel’s future. But as I noted earlier, he is a master of manipulating the pliable and broken parliamentary dynamics of the Israeli state and he repeatedly made himself as necessary and he is disliked. It is amazing how many things the guy has come back from.
Ambassador Dermer: Netanyahu has “sacred duty” to speak before Congress to attack President’s Iran policy.
Boehner and McConnell say Obama’s economy only benefitting the wealthiest Americans.
There seems to be a growing backlash to the Netanyahu-Boehner speech stunt, both in the United States and Israel. As you can see from our current feature story, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren has said the speech threatens a rift with the US and should be canceled. I want to say more about Oren’s remarks and their context. But before getting to that, a few other developments.
Over at The Slice, Alana Levinson explains why Millennials won’t vote for old, white dudes just because they tweet like teens. Boehner, we’re lookin’ at you.
Disneyland measles outbreak casts spotlight on anti-vax moron community.
I’m going to be holding a Live Chat at The Hive (sub req) at 3 PM eastern this afternoon. Get your questions in in advance at the thread right here, then join me at 3 PM. I look forward to chatting.
New Chair of Senate Immigration panel says he’ll focus on hard working Americans hurt by “record immigration.”
The GOP could turn Social Security into a annual “crisis” like the debt ceiling.
“Senior American official” as quoted by Haaretz: “We thought we’ve seen everything. But Bibi managed to surprise even us. There are things you simply don’t do. He spat in our face publicly and that’s no way to behave. Netanyahu ought to remember that President Obama has a year and a half left to his presidency, and that there will be a price.”
Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s office has tried to paper over the confrontation by calling the congressional invitation bipartisan. But Democrats were quick to note that is not true. Even American Jewish groups who seldom allow any daylight between themselves and the Israeli government appear shocked by Netanyahu’s move and are having difficulty defended it.