“If you can make the people afraid, you can make them do anything. That’s what Prime Minister Netanyahu was doing. He was trying to make people afraid,” exclaims Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash, after he heard Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, speak in front of the House of Congress.
Many House officials believe that the Prime Minister is attempting to instill fear throughout Washington, as he implies that there is no alternative to Israel obtaining and building nuclear weapons.
In his speech, Netanyahu stated, “We have been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well this is a bad deal. It is a very bad deal. We are better off without it.” The Prime Minister then went on to express that there are plans to obtain more defenseless countries.
While several House members are sure that Netanyahu is trying to instill fear of the future, during his speech Netanyahu had other members of Congress in an uproar of applause, especially after he stated, “We are being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war. That is just not true. The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal.”
President Obama tried playing off the whole meeting and speech, because many are aware that the President was not OK with him visiting in the first place.
Obama said he has not had a chance to watch the video of the speech, but claimed that he did read the transcript, which he reported had “nothing new” in it, and went on to tell reporters, “but on the core issue, which is how do we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which would make it far more dangerous and would give it scope for even greater action in the region, the prime minister didn’t offer any viable alternatives.”
Others agreed with the President, including a senior administration official who commented by saying,
“Where is the alternative? Simply demanding that Iran completely capitulate is not a plan, nor would any country support us in that position. The prime minister offered us no concrete action plan.”
On the other end of the spectrum, other officials like Nancy Pelosi, the House Leader of Democrats stated,
“I was near tears throughout the prime minister’s speech — saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 +1 nations. And saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.”
