Fox News broke the story today that there is the potential for President Obama to revisit the United States' veto of the Palestinian State within the U. N, Security Council, and for once Fox might be on the right side of a report. Of course, their assessment of the situation and why it is suddenly a possibility will be as slanted as Mount Everest.
The picture Fox will paint is that the President and his love for everything Islamic excedes everything else (a fear they've now stoked in their viewers for six years) is the reason for this dangerous scenario. That in the President's rush to love Iran, he has abandoned his one ally in the Middle East and the American people he represents.
It's a rather simplistic and simple-minded assessment of a horridly difficult situation, one that if anyone takes the time to dissect is as ridiculous as it is misguided. The real truth is that Benjamin Netanyahu has forced Obama into a very dangerous corner for which the leader of the free world has little choice but to come out fighting from.
The blame game is an easy one, but if you're going to start with the reason this imbroglio is where it is in the first place, you have to look at Iran being a residual consequence of our armed forces being just triple digit miles from the Iranian border. The lack of forethought put into the invasion of Iraq, which placed America (known by Iran as "The Great Satan" and hated more than even Israel) within physical invasion distance of Iran, created immediately backlash not only from the insurgence of Al Qaeda in Iraq (possibly supported by Iran). The result was Iran's immediate push for a deterrent to keep American forces at bay and to thwart any thought by the West of invasion further East. This also pushed Iran to further threaten America's greatest ally in the region, Israel, with future annihilation should anything come of an attempt to take Iran.
However, when it comes to accepting any sort of responsibility for that, the blame game turns immediately into a cry about how pretentious the left is, rather than a reflection on the situation at hand. Obama, having taken office under a campaign promise to cease the endless repetitive tours of many soldiers and end the wars, fulfilled that campaign promise within the last few years. However, Iran, still emboldened and vulnerable to the idea that America had easily moved to within a short distance of their border, pushed harder and harder to become a nuclear power. Their science already far enough along to enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons, America now faced a true dilemma.
At the same time, "Bibi" Netanyahu continued to address the U. N. on the absolute nightmare a nuclear Iran would be for the region, particularly Israel. Though Bibi had encouraged the invasion of Iraq just years earlier, saying that the Arab Spring that would follow would likely benefit the entire region, resulting even in a possible rebellion or collapse in Iran, he, like the Bush/Cheney administration had not fully considered the overall impact of U.S. forces being ample in the region. Meanwhile, the President, now caught between the rock and the hard place of trying to prevent Iran from gaining a functional nuclear warhead that could be delivered into Israel and beyond, faced little choice but to at least attempt a negotiation with Iran's hard-liners as a means to avoid what could be another costly war. The right pressured for more sanctions to Iran's government, though the sanctions have mainly hit the people, leaving the populace to suffer for their governing miscreants.
Netanyahu's Likud party, to the far right of Israeli politics, continued to ramp up their rhetoric about what to do about the Palestinan issue. As recently as July of 2014, Moshe Feigin, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and fellow Likud member outlined a proposal in Arutz Sheva for a complete siege of Gaza and the expulsion of the Palestinians that wish to leave (that aren't involved in any of Hamas' armed wings) and citizenship to those that wish to stay (of which after such exercise there'd be little). At the same time, Netanyahu continued the expanse of settlements, against the promises he would actually curb expansion in an effort to ramp up peace talks. With constituents such as Feigin pushing for extreme action against the Palestinians in general, Netanyahu was clearly walking a tightrope between his supporters on the right and his long-time ally, the United States.
Earlier this year, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas attempted to circumvent dealing with Netanyahu and secure a vote on a Palestinian State at the U. N., much like Israel originally did in 1948. Only two countries prevented this from happening by exercising their veto powers: Australia and The United States.
Most recently, Netanyahu, in the midst of an election run that he pushed to have earlier than scheduled, accepted an invitation from Congressional Speaker of the House John Boehner, breaking 200 years of governing precedent in the United States dating all the way back to George Washington. The right wing of the media, aka Fox News, would have you believe this wasn't a big deal and that the speech was entirely necessary in order for Netanyahu to lay out for the American people the imperatives as to why Iran should not get a nuclear weapon.
But to anyone who understands politics and the situation that was going on with the Iran negotiations knows this speech for Netanyahu was meant to accomplish only one or two things: re-election first and foremost -- to make him appear strong in front of his own people -- and secondly, to possibly assist in derailing an American negotiation with Iran, the result of which Israel was frightened. For John Boehner and the Congress, the speech was meant to undercut and disrupt the negotiations with Iran. Further supporting this hypothesis was the nearly immediate sending of a letter signed by 47 Senators, enlightening Iran on American foreign policy while deliberately attempting to derail anything done to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon at the negotiating table.
Netanyahu had already played politics with America prior to the 2014 election, when he stepped up his support for Mitt Romney publicly. That action in itself would naturally set aglow the President's ire as he defeated Romney. But this time, when Netanyahu returned to Israel, having ignited a controversy in the United States, he found his poll numbers had slipped. The speech had possibly backfired, showing gains by the opposition party.
The U.S. Senators, now known as the "47" were deemed by some as traitors, others as just silly, at the utter arrogance of sending the letter under the disingenuous notion that Congress simply needed to make a point that Iran could not be allowed to get a weapon and Congress has to approve any agreement reached by the President and Iran. Rookie Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas is said to have drafted and led the coalition that signed the letter, and he has reiterated the aforementioned reasoning ad nauseum. He has little to lose and everything to gain no matter the outcome. For taking the hammering at the mercy of the press, Cotton gains the respect and backing of the 46 other signers, as well as those that are so party blind they'll support him if for no other reason than they feel the need to defend one of their own now under attack. Forget the disastrous consequences if negotiations fail and the road to war suddenly becomes brighter, Cotton's egregious act should have been condemned because it sets a terrible precedent for the next Republican leader. Should that leader find him/herself at odds with Congress, this not only pushes for them to seek retribution on the public stage of foreign policy but continues to push for them to show a divided nation to the world, thus truly making America appear weak.
The truth is the act of surprise by the Senators at nearly half of America's admonishing is nothing but a con job. What end game did Netanyahu's speech really provide other than one of several steps designed to intentionally lead America away from the negotiating table with Iran? Netanyahu had delivered the same speech to the U.N. in September 2012, claiming Iran was with a year or two of having a fully functional nuclear weapon. Thus, the speech held nothing new for anyone in America to hear. Coincidentally, Netanyahu delivered his speech in the morning in Washington, lining up very neatly with prime time television in Israel. Everyone involved knew exactly what the outcome would be of these actions. There's no surprise, any more than Obama was surprised at the amount of lies his enemies would spread to prevent him reforming health care.
Meanwhile, in a desperate act of a politician seeing the wheels come off, Netanyahu began appealing to his ultra-right-wing constituents, claiming there would never be a Palestinian State when he was Prime Minister and even going so low as to fear monger Israelis to get to the polls to subvert the large number of Arabs turning out to make sure he lost his control.
By backing away from the idea of a two-state solution, Netanyahu has now placed himself in direct conflict with stated American foreign policy. Though many on the left had always suspected Netanyahu's actions belied a separate agenda from his stated support of a two-state solution in the region, his campaign pledges in a last ditch effort to secure his office may have swayed any non-believers.
Thus, the Fox News report, an unplanned ramification of having put Israel directly against America's stated foreign policy. Netanyahu has now put Obama up against his constituents who won't enjoy Israel dictating to America how things are to be done, not to mention having spent countless hours attempting a negotiation with a fanatical regime in an attempt to delay what may be inevitable. The consideration of a recall of the veto against the Palestinian State may end up being the regrettable course of action the Obama Administration takes, one that would set a horrible course for Israel and the region. Granting the Palestinians an undeserved state with no leadership capable of controlling it would result in nothing short of disaster for Israel, setting up insecure official borders on both sides of the Jewish State and putting the entire population in much greater risk.
Already Great Britain has announced in response to Bibi's backtracking that should he abandon the two-state solution, Britain will fully recognize the Palestinian State.
While Congress beats the drums of war, Netanyahu has played a very dangerous game, one that has left the President of the Free World considering something that has never been considered until now, that of actually abandoning the support of Israel at the U.N. That game is one Netanyahu is not prepared to lose, nor is the State of Israel.
G-d help us if he does.
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