Netanyahu: the big lie speech to Congress and the world
Benjamin Netanyahu claimed: “So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy. The difference is that ISIS is armed with butcher knives, captured weapons and YouTube, whereas Iran could soon be armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs.”
Republican Congressional leaders invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress. Netanyahu proclaimed that his visit was not intended to be political, stating “I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political. That was never my intention.”
Netanyahu lied. His visit was entirely political.
Often times during an election or in anticipation of an election, sitting politicians will attempt to create “boogie men”. They will exaggerate external threats in a desperate attempt to stir nationalist sentiments.
This “rally ‘round the flag syndrome” is a tool often used by politicians to create fear in the electorate in the hopes they will turn to them for protection. Better the devil you know than the one you don’t.
A recent example of this in American politics –even though it was not tied to an election– was the 2001 approval rating of former President G.W. Bush. On September 10, Bush had a Gallup Poll rating of 51%. By September 15, after the 9-11 attacks his approval rating had increased by 34% to 85% and even reached 90%.
According to a Times of Israel poll published in February, only 41% of likely Israeli voters said they viewed Netanyahu favorably as his re-election effort enters its final weeks.
According to an article headlined “Israeli Voters not impressed by Netanyahu’s speech to Congress” Mondoweiss.net, “Netanyahu’s address was widely thought to have doubled as a late campaign pitch.”
Also, post speech analysis indicates that of those that did listen to the speech, 43% said Netanyahu was unable to change their vote. This was according to polls released Wednesday evening by Israel’s Channel 2.
In terms of US politics, it was House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) who took it upon himself to invite Netanyahu to address the joint session of Congress, thus ignoring how powers are clearly delineated in the Constitution. In inviting Netanyahu to speak to Congress, Boehner had three objectives: first, continue to humiliate the first African American President of the United States; second, impact the ongoing negotiations between the Obama administration and Iran in the favor of Israel’s position which is for it to fail; and, third, throw Netanyahu a lifeline two weeks before the Israeli elections as his political position in Israel flounders.
Were Boehner’s efforts successful? It depends upon whom you ask. Many conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) compared President Obama to Neville Chamberlain while praising Netanyahu’s speech. Rush Limbaugh said that “Benjamin Netanyahu today was everything Barack Obama is not.”
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi 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.”
Christiane Amanpour called the speech “dark, Strangelovian” in its hysteria about Iran as Nazi Germany.
Whether you are conservative or liberal facts still matter. It is the responsibility of the American mainstream media to accurately and consistently report the facts. One cannot debate that Netanyahu’s claim that Iran could “…soon be armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs” has been debunked by his own intelligence service, the Mossad.
As reported by The Guardian, “Israel’s intelligence agency concluded that Iran was ‘not performing the activity necessary to produce weapons’”.
Yet, American mainstream media seems to be conveniently ignoring The Guardian’s revelation. We have heard Netanyahu’s “Chicken Little” lie that the nuclear sky is falling before. Netanyahu doubled-down on the Bush administration’s lies that convinced Americans of the need to illegally invade Iraq. The Bush administration’s deceptions and lies have been painstakingly documented by former Congressman Henry Waxman’s report, Iraq on the Record.
On March 1, 2015 Secretary of State John Kerry went on the record and reiterated the Obama administration’s position that Iran has lived up to an interim agreement reached in late 2013, known as the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA). Kerry stated that as a result of that agreement, “Israel is safer today.” What part of progress does Netanyahu have a problem with?
In his speech, Netanyahu omitted some very inconvenient truths. He stated, “The people of Iran are very talented people,” and “But in 1979, they were hijacked by religious zealots” and “who imposed on them immediately a dark and brutal dictatorship.”
He conveniently omitted the fact that the Iranian Revolution of 1979 was in response to the 1953 US- backed overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and the installation and support by the US of the dictator Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi aka the “Shah of Iran”.
This was all done at the behest of Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum (BP) and led by US operatives Kermit Roosevelt and H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. It can be argued that had the US not intervened in the politics of Iran in 1953 the world would not be dealing with “radical Islam” to the degree to which it is in 2015.
As they say on the corner, “don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’”.
Netanyahu said, “Before lifting those restrictions, the world should demand that Iran do three things. First, stop its aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East. Second, stop supporting terrorism around the world. And third, stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state.”
How about this, first, Israel should stop the occupation in Occupied Territories and stop attacking Syria and Lebanon. The US should be a true unbiased arbiter and force Israel to abide by the more than 140 UN Resolutions supporting the Palestinians.
Second, Israel should stop selling weapons to conflicted regions, such as some African countries and Sri Lanka. Recall that Israel was a big military supporter of the South African apartheid regime. Third, Israel should allow for the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people, a free Palestinian state and the right of return for Palestinian exiles and refugees.
Israel has to give security to get security.
In algebra what you do on one side of the equation you must do on the other side in order for the equation to remain balanced. Up to this point, the Israeli equation has been unbalanced.
I realize that many people who read this Op Ed may interpret my analysis and its presentation as undiplomatic. Since diplomacy has failed, let’s try honesty.
In his March 3, 2015 before the joint session of Congress, Netanyahu doubled-down on Bush’s Big Lie. We have seen this movie before; it was called Iraq.
Dr. Wilmer Leon is the Producer/ Host of the Sirius/XM Satellite radio channel 126 call-in talk radio program “Inside the Issues with Wilmer Leon” Go to www.wilmerleon.com or email:[email protected]. www.twitter.com/drwleon and Dr. Leon’s Prescription at Facebook.com © 2015 InfoWave Communications, LLC
