Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech before Congress is straining the bipartisan support that Israel has enjoyed for so long in domestic U.S. politics. Netanyahu circumvented the standard diplomatic channels by neglecting to consult with the Obama Administration when planning the speech, instead having the Israeli Ambassador arrange it directly with House Speaker John Boehner.
This direct snub to the president rightly has many congressional Democrats outraged. At last count, 34 representatives and senators have announced that they will be skipping the speech.
Netanyahu’s stated objective for the speech is to express his concern for Israel’s safety, especially with ongoing multilateral negotiations with Iran. But with Israeli elections coming in March, Netanyahu also wants to show voters that he is the only candidate who can corral support in the U.S. — a strategy that is clearly backfiring.
Israel has a unique and prosperous relationship with the U.S.: We give them lots and lots of money, they do whatever they want and then we defend them against international backlash. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. But apparently it’s not enough to merely subsidize the Israeli military while they alienate the rest of the international community, Netanyahu wants to hijack U.S. foreign policy and use us to get re-elected.
The embattled prime minister also hopes to whip up support for a bill that would impose further sanctions on Iran and effectively derail ongoing negotiations over an agreement that would limit their nuclear capabilities. Reaching an agreement is an essential step towards repairing our relationship with Iran, and hopefully a small step toward bringing them out of isolation.
While Israel is understandably worried about threats to their security and Iran’s potential to rival their own influence in the region, it does no good to keep Iran isolated and under sanctions. Bringing them into the international community will help to delegitimize their hardliners and could be a stabilizing force in the Middle East.
Given Israel’s status as a client state, we cannot allow them to dictate to us what our foreign policy goals should be. Israel has had immense bipartisan support in the U.S. — largely thanks to lobbying efforts by AIPAC — that’s effectively silenced any dissent against it from either side of the aisle. With this latest blunder, Netanyahu may have disrupted this dynamic by turning himself into a target for partisanship.
The best possible result of Netanyahu’s trip to the U.S. is exactly what he hopes to avoid: the emergence of a nuanced debate over Israeli policies and whether they have merit, rather than what we have now which is unquestioning obedience to a small nation that is reliant on our foreign aid but also fuels the anti-U.S. sentiment terrorist groups have used as an effective recruiting tool.
Netanyahu recognizes the influence Israel has had in U.S. politics and has never hesitated to exploit it for his own gain. He once remarked on camera that the U.S. “is a thing you can move very easily,” showing just how much he believes he can manipulate his nation’s primary financial backer. But thanks to the upcoming speech, his influence — and his chances at re-election — may now be in jeopardy.
Whether it’s Netanyahu or a victorious challenger from the opposition party, the Israeli prime minister could be facing a very different and more divisive political climate within the U.S. Whoever wins in the March elections would do well to follow these steps:
1. Take our money.
2. Shut up.
3. Stop building illegal settlements.
It’s time that we realize that the U.S. is capable of helping Israel without bowing down to them. We need to strike a balance that ensures Israeli security without tarnishing our relations with the rest of the Middle East and without supporting human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Reach the columnist at hneidig@asu.edu or follow @hneidig on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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