Netanyahu’s conduct is an affront to the United States

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to betray the United States’ friendship with Israel by attempting to sabotage diplomacy with Iran in an unwelcome address to Congress at a critical point in the nuclear negotiations.  This is his latest affront in a line of insults over the last year.   

These include his brazen support for West Bank and East Jerusalem settlement expansions during the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which Secretary of State John Kerry cited as the provocation that ended the talks in bitter acrimony.  They also include his address to the Christians United for Israel conference last July, in which he essentially exploited the superstitions of Evangelicals and their charismatic cult leader John Hagee—a self-styled astrologer—in order to distract Americans from his indefensible expansionist policies and shift the focus to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. 

{mosads}While Israel has every right to defend itself against Hamas, which refuses to consider a permanent peace settlement with Israel, Netanyahu’s settlement policies have undermined Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has been willing to sign a peace agreement but will not on terms humiliating to the Palestinians.  Netanyahu did not discuss any of that in his address to CUFI however.  Rather, he disingenuously conflated Israel’s security threats with the United States’ in order to obscure his government’s own role in perpetuating Israel’s security problems, which the U.S. government has contributed to by enabling him to placate the settler movement with no political or economic consequences.  This, furthermore, reinforces the Iranian government’s view of the U.S. government as selective in its adherence to international law and international norms of justice.

The U.S. should ultimately stand by Israel militarily if Iran chooses to maintain its absolutist policies toward it and will not agree to reasonable limits to its nuclear program.  Members of Congress, however, should not kowtow to AIPAC and the Israeli Right in their efforts to sabotage the nuclear negotiations before their conclusion at the end of March or June.  If they do, the blood of more American servicemen and women may be on their hands.  Congress should allow the negotiations to take their course.   

Buonomo is a geopolitical risk analyst who specializes in Middle East affairs.  He has a dual degree in Political Science and Middle East Studies from the U.S. Air Force Academy and is a master’s candidate in Middle East Studies at George Washington University.  His views are his own.