The latest WSJ article Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks With U.S. is a triumph of intention over substance, as anyone who read it can testify. The intention in question being that of White House and State Dept: to inflict another painful blow on Bibi.
Let's try to deconstruct the story. First of all, complaints about spying coming from US, whose spying activities were in the last few years discovered everywhere, save (probably) the Antarctic - which is to be still checked with the penguin population - do sound somewhat ridiculous. The people who can't live with understanding that everyone spies on everyone should probably retire to the above mentioned continent. A name of a certain whistleblower that resides in Moscow, if my memory is not deceiving me, comes to mind, as well as names of several European leaders who found a CIA or NSA grubby hand, while trying to retrieve a sensitive document from their own pockets etc. And a face of a certain American lover of photography - but not bird photography, rather that of military objects in Israel, whom I had a pleasure to escort from a military restricted area during my army days - is etched in my memory too... rather an arrogant fellow, if I might add.
But let's proceed with the article: it doesn't (unlike some hotheads initially claimed) state that Israel spied after US diplomats (although it wouldn't have surprised me - see above). It claims that Israel used the intelligence it gained in order to influence U.S. lawmakers against the deal with Iran. Strangely, it offers as proof the facts that could be retrieved from any public source - such as the 6500 centrifuges Iran is allowed to keep - against all reason and sense, it has to be added. And other similar crapola, intended to muddy the waters while the Iranian deal is being criticized by a rising number of Congress members and the tide of criticism is gathering a real bipartisan support.
The last part of the article, unbelievably, delves again into the "insult" caused by Bibi's visit and speech at the Congress. Unbelievably, because it is wondrous to see how long it is considered possible to milk this totally dry cow. And how hyper-sensitive is the current administration to shenanigans of one specific politico out of hundreds.
Amendment: See the comment by Sad Red Earth. I am ready to recognize the fact that Bibi's visit and speech, besides being poorly timed, was a significant insult to the authority and the seat of power of US. More significant than I estimated from far away.
So the timing and the goals of the new Israel-bashing campaign, as all the previous ones - deserved or not - show without a shadow of a doubt that the current administration surely decided to remove the gloves in its treatment of Israel in general and Bibi in particular.
Not saying that it is totally undeserved where Bibi is concerned, but I am afraid that Bibi alone is already too small a goal for the all-consuming rage of some people in Washington D.C.
Interesting times we are coming to, indeed.
Update. From CNN, of all sources:
Members of Congress were both surprised by and dismissive of a Wall Street Journal story that the Israeli government spied on the U.S.-led negotiations and leaked information on the developing deal to legislators.And even more titillating, by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker:
More than a half-dozen lawmakers in both parties and chambers denied receiving such briefings from Israel.
I think y'all all understand what's happening here. I mean, you understand who's pushing this out.Indeed, we do.
19 comments:
You don't get it Snoopy. The admin must explain the complete disintegration of Obama's ME strategy - the Jewish spies! And they leaked the secrets to the US congress!
http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/03/24/a-comprehensive-failure-in-yemen/
My favorite is the sentences:
Nevertheless, this record of comprehensive, continuing failure and miscalculation is in a league of its own. It does not, however, appear to have caused much head-scratching at the White House, where confidence in President Obama’s strategic genius appears undiminished.
Seems you are on an interesting track, Peter ;-)
Really? My wife says I went off the rail a long ago... May I show her your evaluation of my progress?
Be my guest, but since my wife says the same about me, I doubt that this testimony will help you.
:)
Snoop, I believe we agree on almost all of this and related issues. I must dissent on one point: the appearance before Congress. Mind you, given what Netanyahu believes about Iran, as do I -- and I believe he sincerely does -- I think he was right to do it. Too much at stake for diplomatic niceties. However, I think it far too blinkered not to recognize what he did do. He interfered, in cooperation with a sitting president's domestic political foes, on a state occasion in defiance of that allied head of state's wishes, with that president's current major foreign policy initiative. It was an affront to the power and standing of an allied leader of a the most public kind possible. It was a choice, It had risk. It may yet pay off. But risks bear consequences. No president could or should allow such behavior by any foreign leader to go unpunished. He woudn't deserve the office if he did. What the punishment is, to whom and how it is administered, that is a different matter. But to think the act to have received to much focus -- to little in its aftermath, I believe -- is to see too much through one's disposition.
You make some good points. However, It is not just Bibi that President Obama is attacking. Threatening to withdraw support at the U.N. hurts Israel itself, and emboldens the Iranians and the PA (also Hamas).
The President is being petty, to the detriment of both Israel and the United States.
Stan
True. Splitting that hair is the challenge, and now it appears Obama is also being directed in his choice by his fundamental misperception of the conflict.
I shall bow to your view in this case, esp. recalling that Israeli song that says "things that you see from here are not seen from there". Meaning in this case that your knowledge of US politics is much superior.
Just to make it clear: the timing of Bibi's speech and the unseemly haste in its preparation, to my taste was dictated by his internal political pressures. However I can't in clear conscience blame Bibi for something he done out of belief, even if he would have risked his career and his standing with the POTUS in doing so. Much as my dislike of him guides me sometimes, he spoke truth to power, and at least this should be respected, not that we disagree on this point.
Isn't the administration suppose to give congress full details of the
talks?
Probably only after the deal was agreed upon.
As an old Assyrian foe, I think you are all lunatics and god bless everyone of you. In the mean time you guys watch your asses the O and minions are out for more than Bibi's scalp.
Agreed. Also, it seems that many in his administration that had a better understanding of the conflict have left.
Stan
Thanks, your Majesty, we'll keep up with the craziness. And yes, we see where it goes...
You''re welcome, now send some of your old timey prophets to Washington (wait, maybe you did), I can tell you from experience, your prophet guys can be real pains in the.......
... the esophagus, I know. And yes, them prophets are all that and more - this is precisely the reason we send them out into the world...
Respectfully, Sad, this is baloney. Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Netanyahu to speak to the Congress, which is a co-equal branch of the government and can invite anyone it wishes to speak to it. If the papier-mache pasha doesn't like that, tough; he's not in Congress and doesn't get a say in how it runs things, a lesson he should have learned when the Supreme Court told him that no, he didn't get to determine when the Senate was in session so he could appoint people to vacant government posts. The former junior senator from Illinois seems to have some difficulty realizing that inaugurations and coronations are not the same thing.
He is not being petty, he is petty. There is a difference, unfortunately.
This sort of misunderstanding of the way the American system works seems to arise every time there's a Democrat in the White House. All presidents think they are kings but only the Democrats are treated that way by the (predominantly Democrat) news media. If a Republican president had acted in this petty way, the aforementioned media would have been laughing at him and giving us all a civics lesson on the Constitution.
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