Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is put in a position that will essentially cause controversy from two sides of the spectrum. The Prime Minister who is set to address congress is pondering whether or not he should actually meet with them in Washington.
If Netanyahu meets with congress then he is going to make President Obama beyond angry. The president was not informed about the decision of his appearance, and if Netanyahu does come, then he will face scrutiny from citizens back home because he will be alienating voters. House Speaker John Boehner, invited Netanyahu on March 3. Netanyahu is up for election on March 17 and believes that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel’s existence.
Ronen Bergman, who serves as the senior political and military analyst for Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot and author of “The Secret War with Iran,” told Fox News, “As far as I see it, Netanyahu is determined to go and has put himself in a position that to give up now would be seen as great weakness from the point of view of the Israeli public.” He then went on to say, “One of the main reasons he got himself into this situation in the first place is to portray himself as two things; first, as the one who is at the forefront of fighting the Iranian nuclear project, and second, as not being afraid of confrontation with the U.S. administration and the president when it comes to Iran.”
Meanwhile, to say President Obama is upset about the Prime Minister coming over is making an understatement. The Commander and Chief intends to not meet with Netanyahu; many believe that the Prime Minister will expose some truths regarding the negotiations that are in the works with Iran concerning the issue of nuclear weapons.
Bergman pointed out that, “I just returned from the Munich Security Conference where I met with some very senior U.S. officials. The way they describe it they are ballistic about Netanyahu. This mindset is common wall-to-wall in all corridors of the U.S. administration; the Armed Service Committee, the intelligence community, the State Department, the Defense Department. I heard only one thing, and that is that this shouldn’t happen.”
The House Speaker did not involve the president with his decision when he invited the Prime Minister and stated, “I wanted to make sure that there was no White House interference. I frankly didn’t want that getting in the way, quashing what I thought was a real opportunity.”
Photo: AP
