Netanyahu, aka The Republican Senator From Israel, May Have Made A Fatal Political Mistake

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 1:07pm

Aligning himself with the most powerful loathsome political hack who was just American Snipered on Forbes.com:

Considering that Speaker Boehner has failed to accomplish anything of note during his Speakership, I can only wonder how it must feel to have his legacy be his effort to disgrace the American President in the effort to bolster the political chances of a foreign leader.

Shouldn't all those people who once frothed at the mouth over something a Dixie Chick said in concert in Europe be leading the charge with pitchforks and torches????




Chain smoking drunk undermines the US

Updated On: 1/28/15 at 01:07 PM

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 1:49pm

Nobody cares -- it'd only be an issue if either Boehner or Netanyahu or anyone at their level were ever held accountable for their actions, and that just never happens.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 2:00pm

Well, if he loses the upcoming election, I imagine this ridiculous stunt will be recalled in all the post-election analysis. This decision even got negative reaction on Fox News. Albeit, from very reasonable (by their standards) Fox News stars heterosexual anchor Shep Smith and Mike Wallace's annoying son. I know it's a touch petty, but it would be nice to see this play a small role in Bibi's defeat and the resurgence of the Israeli Left.

Anyway, for pointing out what a despicable bully Netanyahu is, I imagine I'll be branded an anti-Semite by the BWWIDF crew.




FOX NEWS - Sheppy and Chris Dubya Updated On: 1/28/15 at 02:00 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 3:13pm

He tried to bully me once, so I have NO love for him.

And it looks like he definitely will go down in this election. According to Haaretz, the left-leaning and anti-Netanyahu newspaper in Israel, Obama's 2012 campaign field manager Jeremy Bird has arrived in Israel with a team of crackerjack campaign specialists to help the opposition.





HAARETZ: The Obama campaign strategist who could break the Israeli elections wide open: The group V15, which denies that its motto is ‘anyone but Bibi,’ is working with U.S. political strategist Jerem

[HorseTears]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 3:22pm

Interesting. Thanks for the info, PJ. One hopes those idiots at Hamas keep themselves in check for the next several weeks and don't give Netanyahu anymore fuel for the existential threat fire.

Well, one hopes Hamas is defeated in the next Palestinian election (should such a thing happen) and banished to fringe status, but.. baby steps.

[South Florida]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 3:25pm

If Fox says bad move against Obama wow, he really effed up.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 3:27pm

"Anyway, for pointing out what a despicable bully Netanyahu is, I imagine I'll be branded an anti-Semite by the BWWIDF crew."

Very disappointed in you HorseTears for having so little faith that most supporters of Israel can accept disagreement with the policies of an individual politician while still understanding you have no desire to see Israel wiped off the face of the map like the idiot here who shall remain unnamed, UK, uh, I mean OK? I'm Jewish and as strong a supporter of Israel as anyone but I have been concerned by some of his policies including the continued expansion of settlements in some areas. I don't however fault him for being a strong and aggressive leader with a loud voice on the world stage. Israel can afford nothing less.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 4:27pm

Bob, that was not directed at you or anyone in particular, but during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, there were some incredibly heated discussions (duh) on this board regarding that campaign. Anyone attempting to make a distinction between Israel the country vs the expansionist and sometimes brutal policies of the far right government was branded as a naive fool who just didn't get "it".

It is possible to be a supporter of Israel (as I consider myself) and still be vehemently opposed to the actions of the extremist, far right in Israel. Just as brave Israelis, like those who speak up via the Breaking the Silence organization, prove every day while many of their fellow citizens call them traitors and self-hating Jews simply for speaking truth to power.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 5:21pm

Didn't think it was directly at me HorseTears, and I remember those discussions last year. My recollection was that most of the reaction was directly at one or a few people whose views of Israel, were let's just say really far out there.

While as I said, I have some concern over some of the expansion efforts and while one could say that Israel has sometimes responded to Palestinian aggression with disproportionate force, I don't know if I would go so far as to label their policies brutal. I believe, unless a person has grown up in Israel or has lived there for a significant length of time (neither of which describes me), it's really hard to truly understand how it feels to be surrounded by countries that would like to wipe you off the map and the mentality one develops by necessity when you live in that type of environment.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/18/15 at 4:29am

Well, damn, Bibi turned it around in the final hour. His strategy of appealing to the far right base seems to have worked. I know all the pre-election analysis said this was largely an election about the economy, but one has to imagine that his comments about a Palestinian state from earlier this week helped him recover just in time for the election. In a direct reversal of comments he's made in the past, he explicitly said that if he and Likud were re-elected there would be no Palestinian state. Not that he would continue building settlements on disputed land, not that he would continue to support apartheid like restrictions on the people of Gaza, but that there would be no Palestinian state while he was in power. While it would be naive to think that a Palestinian state would be formed and recognized within one Prime Minister's term, it is disappointing to know that, per his own statements, there will be zero progress on the peace process while he remains in power. Seems like the only hope for a Palestinian state will be for the economy to tank even more during Bibi's new term that even some center-right Israelis start glancing left.

BTW, looking back to the last couple of weeks, former AIPAC lobbyist, Israeli government lobbyist and US congressional aide MJ Rosenberg stated that he was, basically, 99% sure that the Republican letter to Iran was deviced and written by AIPAC. Not a real shock if you've been paying attention to AIPAC's influence over the past several decades, but I guess reassuring to hear this from someone who worked for and with AIPAC in the past.

MJ Rosenberg: How We Know AIPAC Wrote The GOP’s “Treason” Letter To Iran

[Randyk2]

Posted: 3/18/15 at 7:22am

Is anybody really shocked at the election outcome? I'm not.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/18/15 at 8:23am

Thank God for this result. Israel is a safer place today because of it. Until the Palestinians can finally wise up and vote the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas out of power, what other choice does Netanyahu have?

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/18/15 at 8:57am

Can we please have this conversation WITHOUT the Headband?

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/18/15 at 11:44am

That's selective social filtering. Creating a virtual echo-chamber, so as to avoid dissenting opinions.

Not how the real world works. Just deal with it or "block" me. Adios, lover boy.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/18/15 at 12:08pm

""centrist""

even the quotation marks need quotation marks

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/19/15 at 8:34pm

Really interesting piece from NYT's Thomas Friedman in which he argues that Bibi's actions over the last couple of weeks could have a lasting impact on the identity of the Jewish state:


Well, it’s pretty clear now: Benjamin Netanyahu is going to be a major figure in Israeli history — not because he’s heading to become the longest serving Israeli prime minister, but because he’s heading to be the most impactful. Having won the Israeli elections — in part by declaring that he will never permit a two state­ solution between Israelis and Palestinians — it means Netanyahu will be the father of the one­ state solution. And the one ­state solution means that Israel will become, in time...

....either a non ­Jewish democracy or Jewish non ­democracy Updated On: 3/19/15 at 08:34 PM

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/19/15 at 8:56pm

Holy ****. The balls on this guy. He's now telling NBC News, in his first post-election interview with American media, that he actually DOES want a two state solution. On Monday he ruled out the possibility of a two state solution. Now that he's won the election, a two state solution's cool again? Jesus. I suppose, in the long run, that reversal is a good thing. You'd think he'd wait a week or something before flip flopping, though.

Wonder how those racist, xenophobic, far right wing Israelis whose votes he courted on Monday now feel about giving him their support.

I get it, I get it. It's just politics. He had zero chance of winning anyone from the left, his "center right" Likud party didn't have enough support to win the majority of votes by themselves, so he had to court the far right. I get it. I'm just shocked at how naked his pandering has been this past week.
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu Tells NBC He Wants a 'Peaceful Two-State Solution'

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/19/15 at 11:21pm

Horse Tears, you should look at exactly what Netanyahu actually said in that comment before the election.

The American media--including the New York Times, Washington Post, Huff Post, AP and the White House--all said that Netanyahu had "ruled out" a two-state solution.

Only he never said that.

What he said was, and I quote: "I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to radical Islam against the state of Israel."

That's the quote.

Granted, the statement was red meat to the one-staters. But it wasn't the shocking "racist, xenophobic" statement you and everyone else in the United States thinks they heard.

[dented146]

Posted: 3/20/15 at 1:45am

Who and what would constitute the new Palestinian State? Should Israel agree to a State controlled by Hamas which is funded and supplied by Iran? The whole idea is not rational at this point in time.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/20/15 at 3:11am

Nice obfuscation, PJ. Perhaps it's time to consider a second career in PR.

Firstly, the story here is not related solely to that quote you posted, but to Netanyahu's response to a reporter from NRG who - just this past Monday, March 16 - asked Netanyahu if a Palestinian state would not be established if he were re-elected. Bibi's response? "Indeed." One word, but it speaks volumes.

Secondly, I did not say that this (or any) statement that Netanyahu made was racist or xenophobic. Nor did I suggest that every supporter of his is motivated solely or primarily by racism or xenophobia. I was saying that by making such statements he was appealing to far right racists and xenophobes who would otherwise perhaps voted for parties further right than Likud. In the same way that Republican candidates in this country engage in dog whistling when they talk about "securing our border" from those pesky Mexicans or about how Obama's "not like us".

Who knows, this may end up being good for the Palestinians in the long run. The White House has already dropped suggestions that all policies regarding the region - including a UN vote on Palestinian statehood - are being "reassessed".



Updated On: 3/20/15 at 03:11 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 3/20/15 at 6:06am

Horse, Bibi's "Indeed" is also out of context.

His original point, which has been twisted and mis-quoted, was that until there is a demilitarized Hamas who agrees to recognize Israel's right to exist there can not be a two state solution.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/20/15 at 6:19am

Taz, I understand that it can be argued that it was a qualified statement. But after making that quote you posted, he was asked the the clarifying question by the reporter, to which he replied "Indeed". We can parse these statements until those proverbial cows come home, but it's hard to deny that on the day before an election in which polls suggested a big loss for him, he threw some juicy red meat to hardliners on the right by signalling that there would be no 2 state solution under his watch. And, hey, it worked. Hats off to him as a campaigner. But as a politician, with statements like that and with that bloody speech to congress he may be further isolating Israel internationally and has turned support for Israel into a partisan issue in the US when it could and should be something both Repubs and Dems can support.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/20/15 at 6:37am

I guess it wasn't at all racist when he said this either?
"The right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are going en masse to the polls. Left-wing NGOs are bringing them on buses,”

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/20/15 at 8:40am

...but it's hard to deny that on the day before an election in which polls suggested a big loss for him...

The polls were wildly inaccurate. Do some research. There are entire pieces and analyses on election polling and how it completely failed, making pundits and the media to believe the race was closer than it actually was (news flash: it never was).

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/20/15 at 9:24am

That may well turn out to be true, Liza. But Netanyahu's team obviously thought there was a good chance they'd lose or I doubt even he would have gone this far. Also, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Israel bans any public polling in the week leading up to an election. A lot can change in a week. Or, even in a day.