It appears that President Obama was not the only one whom Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, kept in the dark about his plans to address Congress on March 3. An Israeli outlet is now reporting that Netanyahu also concealed secret negotiations with John Boehner from his own National Security Advisor, Yossi Cohen.
This merely confirms what most observers have suspected: Netanyahu’s speech is not about security, but rather the two-fold chance to embarrass Obama while creating valuable political optics in advance of Israel’s March 17 elections.
Via i24news:
President Barack Obama and his top aides were not the only ones kept in the dark about the invitation extended by House Speaker John Boehner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress on Iran’s nuclear program.
i24news has learned that Netanyahu’s decision to address Congress on March 3 was made without consulting his own National Security Advisor, Yossi Cohen.
The invitation was orchestrated by Boehner and the Israeli ambassador to the US, Ron Dermer, but was not discussed thoroughly by a broader forum in Jerusalem. According to well-informed sources, just like the US administration, Cohen learned about Netanyahu’s plans only a short while before Boehner’s public announcement of the scheduled speech.
Cohen, a 30-year veteran of the Mossad spy agency, was appointed to his post by Netanyahu in 2013. According to the law governing the responsibilities of the National Security Council and its head, Cohen’s job includes providing advice to the prime minister and his government on Israel’s strategic relationships.
Netanyahu has claimed that he will be speaking for “the entire Jewish people” on March 3 as he challenges Obama’s Iran diplomacy from Congress, conflating Israel with all Jews. It turns out that, not only will he not be speaking for the majority of American Jews (who support Obama’s efforts), he won’t even be speaking for his own national security team, which is concerned about the damage Netanyahu’s doing to Israel’s relations with the United States.
Guess who else knew Netanyahu’s administration was not discussing this speech with its national security team? John Boehner.
So tell me: who’s most concerned about Israel’s security, those choreographing this speech, or those critiquing it?
The answer should worry both American and Israeli voters.
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David Harris-Gershon is author of the memoir What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, published recently by Oneworld Publications.
Follow him on Twitter @David_EHG.
