As you may be aware, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by Speaker of the House John Boehner to address a joint session of congress in March.
As you may also be aware, President Obama has declined to meet with Mr. Netanyahu. The ostensible reasons are that Speaker Boehner breached protocol when he bypassed the President and did the inviting on his own…and that, in any event, President Obama doesn\’t meet with heads of state so soon before their elections (there is an Israeli election later in March).
Is that the truth? Or does the truth lie elsewhere?
Excerpted from Gil Ronen\’s article for israelnationalnews.com (pay special attention to the last paragraph, which I have put in bold print):
Asenior Israeli official delivered an uncommonly harsh attack on USPresident Barack Obama\’s administration Thursday evening, followingthe American report that alleged that Mossad Head Tamir Pardo hadwarned US senators against further Iran sanctions, in contradictionof Israel\’s official stance.
“Thefraudulent claims against the Mossad Head were raised by theAmericans yesterday, despite a message that had been transmitted tothem on Tuesday by Intelligence Minister [Yuval] Steintz,” thesenior Israeli source told Channel2news.
Headded that Israel had gone over the minutes of the meeting betweenPardo and the delegation of senators, and that Pardo had not saidwhat was attributed to him.
“Leakingthe Mossad Head\’s statements, even if they had not been falsified, isa serious breach of all the rules,” the senior source added.”Friends do not behave like this. Information from a secret meetingmust not leak out.”
Sourcesin Jerusalem told ArmyRadio Thursdaythat the story reported in Bloomberg aboutdisagreement between Netanyahu and the Mossad regardingsanctions on Iran is US President Barack Obamaadministration\’s “revenge” for Netanyahu\’s invitationto address Congress.
Is that the real reason?
Is it all about President Obama\’s ego (and we are talking about one bodaciously huge ego) being bruised by the fact that John Boehner invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to speak before congress – an invitation that a) Obama wasn\’t about to make, which b) made Boehner and Republicans look good while showing up Obama and Democrats – especially to Israel supporters – who, despite Barack Obama\’s clear distaste for Israel, still comprise a large majority of the country?
I don\’t know the answer. But I would not put it past him. Would you?
One other thing: do you find it as remarkable as I do that Barack Obama – who regularly ignores the congress, thus the constitution, and whose actions on things like immigration, recess appointments, etc. have been ruled unconstitutional over and over again – is complaining that someone in congress broke protocol? That\’s like Bernie Maddow complaining that someone stole loose change out of his pants pocket.
Two more years of this nightmare. I count the seconds until it is over.
