Benjamin Netanyahu
[Black Star News Editorial]
There are many reasons but these are the 10 primary reasons why I wouldn’t attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before the U.S. Congress If I was A Member of The House or Senate:
1. President Obama is the president of the United States not Benjamin Netanyahu. I owe my allegiance first and foremost to the United States and the Constitution of the U.S.
2. President Obama is in the midst of sensitive negotiations with Iran over its nuclear energy program to arrive at a deal that would prevent Tehran from developing weapons capability –negotiations initiated by previous U.S. presidents and now involving Russia, China, Britain, Germany, and France– and President Obama is an intelligent man who serves the interest of the United States and its allies even when these interests conflict with and come at the expense of the majority of the global community who are not considered U.S. allies; Israel happens to be a U.S. ally.
3. President Obama is the leader of the U.S. which has the world’s most powerful conventional army and given the current political dynamics within the United States if it came down to it the U.S. would use the military capacity to prevent Iran from developing weapons and using these weapons against Israel or any other nation.
4. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech intends to undermine the Obama Administration’s negotiations with Iran and to upstage the president and weaken his global authority with respect to other global issues subject to sensitive negotiations and has no upside.
5. By publicly showing the world that there are two U.S. policies, one for Israel and the other for the rest of the world — the Global “Harijans” — Netanyahu’s speech before the Congress will damage U.S. credibility globally and invite scrutiny that even Netanyahu himself won’t welcome in the long-run about the terms of the relationship.
6. By injecting himself into domestic U.S. politics in conjunction with a bitter U.S. Congressman, John Boehner, who still can’t accept and live with the fact that an African American candidate defeated a GOP candidate twice, Netanyahu’s Boehner-facilitated speech exacerbates race relations at a time when the country is dealing from the fallout from the killing of unarmed African Americans by police officers including in Ferguson, MO., and Staten Island, NY., and the miscarriage of justice with the non-indictment of the officers.
7. A Wall Street Journal poll shows that nearly half of U.S. voters surveyed –only 30% approved while 48% are against it– oppose Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and thereby stand with President Obama.
8. President Netanyahu knows that the U.S. is the absolute military guarantor of Israel’s security and therefore his speech is not about the risk that a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal poses to Israel’s security but about his egomaniacal bid to win re-election in Israel even at the risk of damaging relations with the Obama administration and jeopardizing a deal with Iran over its nuclear program.
9. Boehner and Netanyahu would not proceed with this speech without having consulted the White House and the State Department if the current U.S. president was not an African American — thereby failing to acknowledge that in fact millions of White voters voted for Obama and helped elect him twice. An affront to President Obama by a foreign leader is an affront to all Americans.
10. Even the Israeli military establishment opposes Netanyahu’s speech and six retired generals and a former MOSSAD chief openly criticized it saying it would jeopardize Israel’s security by causing a rift with the U.S. politico-military establishment which is Israel’s absolute security guarantor.
