by Mark Sheilds
Bipartisanship, that widely admired virtue so sadly rare in our nation’s politics, has been — since 1948, when President Harry Truman, rejecting the counsel of his own Cabinet secretaries, recognized the newborn nation — the hallmark of Unites States support for the state of Israel.
But that era is now over. It ended officially when, without so much as consulting with either the White House or the State Department, the Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, unilaterally invited the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address a joint session of Congress on March 3, just two weeks before the Israeli national elections, in which the embattled Netanyahu is fighting for his political life.
For Netanyahu, Boehner’s invitation, guaranteeing him global coverage and enhanced stature, is both the ideal campaign media event and a political gift. For the majority of Israeli voters who, according to polls, are not supporters of Netanyahu’s, the invitation from the House speaker can be reasonably seen as unwelcome American meddling in their country’s election.
More importantly, Netanyahu has publicly and fiercely opposed President Barack Obama’s sustained efforts to negotiate with Iran while maintaining tough sanctions on that country, an agreement ensuring that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons. For many years, Netanyahu’s pitch to American visitors remained consistent: “This is 1938. Iran is Germany, and it is about to go nuclear.” Possibly angered by the Obama administration’s public pressure on Israel to stop the increasing surge of Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu made no effort to hide his support for Republican Mitt Romney over Obama in the 2012 presidential election. Earlier, he had been quoted in the Israeli papers indicting then-top Obama advisers Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod for being “self-hating Jews.”
Let us review the situation. The speaker of the House, a Republican, has deliberately provided a head of state who is manifestly unfriendly to the president of the United States, a Democrat, a unique forum to oppose and to criticize the foreign policy of the United States’ administration, probably to urge Congress to resist any nuclear agreement the United States might reach with Iran and, for good measure, to stiffen current sanctions against that country even more.
Boehner is not a naive man. Yet by this reckless political stunt, which embarrasses the Democratic president, he is undermining the very spirit and record of bipartisanship that, for nearly seven decades, has characterized United States friendship toward Israel. Boehner’s embrace and endorsement of Netanyahu risks turning U.S.-Israeli policy into just another partisan divide like same-sex marriage or global warming.
For interfering in the national elections of a close ally, for undermining the admittedly vulnerable prospects of a peaceful resolution of tension with Iran, for possibly alienating the coalition opposing Netanyahu, which could organize the next Israeli government, and for irresponsibly practicing easy politics over difficult statesmanship, John Boehner may score a few cheap points. But by what he alone has chosen to do, the speaker is, sadly, a diminished and less admirable public man.
To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2015 MARK SHIELDS
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
How dare he not bow to the emperor.
Exactly.
I think Speaker Boehner was trying to remind Obama of Obama’s statement, “I won, you lost” and that gauntlet that gave bipartisan a slap in the Face early on in Obama’s Reign. Bipartisanship?
Obama, Boehner, McConnell, Reid, and “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it” Peloski?
Bipartisanship ? Get Real! Neither Party practices it.
All These Establishment Creeps make the case for Term Limits.
Netanyahu and Boehner are responsible for the poor relations between Obama and Israel? Really? How about what Obama and Crew have done over the past six years…
Hillary Clinton’s 43-minute telephone pillorying of Netanyahu for announcing construction in a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem.
David Axelrod asserting that President Obama considered the housing approval “an affront, an insult…and very, very destructive.â€
Joe Biden ripping Israel for endangering American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Clinton’s demand that Israel unilaterally concede negotiating positions and release hundreds of Palestinian terrorists even before “indirect†peace talks could begin.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates calling Israel “an ungrateful ally.â€
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s chastising Israel to “get back to the damn [negotiating] table.
Obama shoving PM Netanyahu out the White House back door, no dinner, no joint statement.
Pushing Israel to apologize for the terrorist Gaza flotilla
On an open mike, Obama agreeing with French President Sarkozy’s statement that “I cannot bear Netanyahu, he’s a liar,†adding, “You’re fed up, but I have to deal with him every day.â€
Obama’s speech, sandbagging Netanyahu just before he arrived in Washington, calling on Israel to retreat to the 1949 Armistice line as a starting point for negotiations?
No condemnation whatsoever for the anti-Israel incitement by the Palestinian leadership, including celebrating the grisly murder of the Fogel family and their sleeping little boys and baby girl? No condemnation of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem — whose salary comes from American taxpayers — urging Arabs to “fight and kill the Jews�
This Mark Sheilds article is a perversion of the the facts with is typical of his type. Its past time Americans get to hear what Benjamin Netanyahu has to say,,,,curious minds would like to know.
Fostering chaos and dissension around the world and within our shores is a long term tactic exercised by progressive mouthpieces like Mr. Shields for decades and especially now that their antics have suffered wholesale rejection.
The shrill minority will stoop to every conceivable low available to them to recover their self perceived power structure losses. The lies and distortions have surpassed schizophrenic in their downward spiral.
And when conservatives lose its all rainbows and sunshine. This perception of each side being evil without each side seeing its own flaws is incredibly frustrating.
Comments are closed.