I’ve written at great length about this speech, in anticipation of it, and about the Israeli election, to which it is inextricably connected. If you step back, it is amazing that this even happened. A foreign head of state gave a speech to the US Congress explicitly criticizing and trying to block the diplomacy of a sitting U.S. president. Having said all that, what about the speech itself?
I would say it was unremarkable, relative to what we’d been led to expect. He made his argument, filled it with the drama that is part of who he is and which makes sense once you’ve decide to deliver a speech like this. But otherwise, pretty much what we expected.
The one exception was Netanyahu’s reference to talking about information “in the public record.”
Let me explain why. While the final deal has not yet been signed, certain elements of any potential deal are now a matter of public record. You don’t need intelligence agencies and secret information to know this. You can Google it.
This was clearly a reference to a very subtle round of threats and warnings about whether Netanyahu would revealed secret information about the negotiations. Not a huge deal. But notable that he referenced it. Other than that, pretty much what we’d expected.
