Obama and Netanyahu: A humiliating recognition

In an interview conducted last Sunday on CNN with Fareed Zakaria, US President Barack Obama stated that he does not remember having encountered a foreign politician who interfered with American foreign policy as much as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does today, especially when it comes to the nuclear deal with Iran. Aside from the fact that Obama expressed his “dissatisfaction” with Netanyahu’s interference in US foreign affairs, the American president felt it necessary to emphasise the “special relationship” between the United States and Israel, and the former’s “absolute commitment” to ensuring the security of the latter.

I would not be adding anything new by saying that the relationship between the two men has been tense since early 2009, and that Obama’s promises to the Palestinian people and his ambition to be the first US president to bring peace two the two parties has evaporated as a result of Netanyahu’s stubbornness. What hurt the relationship the most, both on the personal and the governmental levels, was when Obama left a meeting with Netanyahu at the White House in 2009 under the pretext that he had to have dinner with his family, as well as Netanyahu’s endorsement for conservative candidate Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential elections.

The Iranian nuclear deal has strained the relationship between the two men and the two administrations even further. Despite the significance of the deal and the threats to Israeli security that any future agreement may give rise to, President Obama went through with the agreement and ignored Netanyahu’s objections. Moreover, Obama’s actions prompted Netanyahu to form a stronger alliance with the Republican Party, which currently enjoys a majority representation in both the US House of Representatives and the Senate. The Israeli Prime Minister gave a speech to Congress last March without Obama’s pre-approval, which was met with resentment by the White House. The Obama administration succeeded in confronting and getting past Netanyahu’s objections to the Iranian nuclear deal mainly because Obama himself sees this as a great part of his presidential legacy. The Israeli administration, along with its Republican allies, has not stopped trying to backtrack on the agreement and are using all their efforts today to stall it wherever possible..

Proof of these efforts is embodied by the recent trip to Israel of more than 58 Republican and Democratic representatives from US Congress, all of whom are members of AIPAC, Israel’s biggest force in Washington. These US representatives met up with Netanyahu to discuss the details of the nuclear deal with Iran. The objectives of both Israel and its US lobby are to bury the nuclear deal in Congress by getting at least two-thirds of Congress members to vote against it. While it is expected that Republicans within will vote against the agreement, they cannot override the power of Obama’s veto. Therefore, it is essential for Israel to reinforce its alliance with the Democrats, as the voices within Obama’s own party will prove to be invaluable.

All these factors bring us to the reality that many are aware of in the United States – although few are willing to say it – that the Israeli-American relationship benefits Israel more than it does the US, and despite the fact that Israel security (and very existence) depends on the United States, it continuously bites the hand that feeds it. An example of this is the fact that Israel spies on its paternal ally and has been found guilty of selling the latter’s secrets to its Chinese competitor.

In his 1989 book They Dare to Speak Out, former US Congressman Paul Findley discusses how AIPAC is quick to stifle any talk of re-evaluating the relationship between the United States and Israel and the detrimental consequences that the Israel Lobby has on US foreign policy in the Middle East. Findley is one of the US congressmen who lost his job due to ongoing pressure from the Zionist lobby. John Mearsheimer, Professor of Politics at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, confirmed these sentiments in their book entitled The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, which was released in 2007. Both professors have suffered a great deal due to the defamation campaign that has been launched against them since the publication of their book.

Obama himself has not succumbed to the Israel lobby’s claims that he is not a “true friend” of Israel, accusations that have been launched against him time and again despite the fact that the reality on the ground proves the contrary given the Obama administration’s unprecedented military support for Israel. Yet, during the 2012 US presidential campaign, Republican candidate Mitt Romney was quick to claim that Obama wanted to throw Israel “under the bus” and later that he was leading Israel to the “oven door” with is nuclear deal with Iran.

In short, what remains is Obama’s recognition that he is weak in this relationship; although in reality this confession is not of great importance. There needs to be recognition that the US is unable to escape Israel’s bullying, and while it is true that Obama has defied Israel a great deal as of late, we cannot negate the fact that Israel remains a master to its slave. As long as American politicians continue to pledge their allegiance to Israel before they pledge it to America, we should not hold our breath waiting for a change in America, even if dissent voices are beginning to emerge. .

Translated from Al-Araby Al-Jadid, 14 August, 2015

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.