Let me finish with Bibi Netanyahu’s speech to the Congress.
Look, as someone who’s spent a part of his life writing speeches — either for others or myself — I have to give credit where it is due.
The Israeli prime minister’s address was a masterwork. It had a nice ice-breaker — the salute to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid — that showed right up front that he wanted this to be a bi-partisan affair.
I think the speech was particularly strong when the Israeli leader talked of the times that President Obama has done things for Israel — things he didn’t share with the public.
So the warm-up was fine, again, masterful.
And then, when he got everyone to take off their armor, their accustomed instinct of self-protection, he put the knife in.
What else can you say about his direct assault on President Obama who has been working for months to get the best possible deal with the Iranians? What else did this visitor from another country mean when he insisted again and again that there’s a better deal out there if we just try harder. Who’s he kidding? If we just try harder? Does he really think we think he’s serious with all this talk about our walking away from the deal as a way to get a better deal in this Persian bazaar? Are we the rubes and he’s the sharpie? Is that the message he sends to this country of ours, that we are the rubes out there sporting for Noble prizes while he had to deal with the real world?
Let’s be honest here. Bibi Netanyahu would have a chunk more credibility on this peace-and-war issue if he hadn’t been blowing his bugle over the heads of the Bushes and the neo-cons as we rushed into Baghdad. His complaint about Iran’s grab of other countries would have more blare to it if it hadn’t been that he, Bibi Netanyahu, had not been totally “in” on the war that turned Iraq into an Iranian pawn. Does anyone in this country who follows such things believe that the man who spoke to the Congress today believes in American foreign policy toward the Mideast? Does he believe in a two-state solution even in principle? What we heard today was not a plan for a deal — but a call to war. That was the message; that was the music; and, if the Republicans who cheered him would only listen, they would know that it’s the mission.
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