Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Monday, March 2, 2015

The Prime Minister's Speech









9 comments:

Infidel753 said...

No surprise that sensible Israelis are very concerned about this. By collaborating with a calculated Republican insult to Obama, Netanyahu has tied himself, and by implication Israel, to one side of the ultra-polarized internal partisan conflict in the US. That's not good for Israel. The US is the only real friend it has, and damaging relations with the US President is dangerous for Israel. If Netanyahu says something stupid he could easily make things worse.

Nobody denies that an Iranian nuclear bomb would be unacceptable, but Obama's openness to Rouhani's willingness to negotiate in good faith are showing promising results toward getting the program verifiably dismantled.

Netanyahu is somewhat the Israeli equivalent of a teabagger -- imagine a somewhat more intelligent version of President Ted Cruz. Also, Israel has an election approaching, and this is an opportunity for him to throw out some red meat to his base.

I hope Americans won't judge Israel by what Netanyahu says -- but too many will.

Dave Miller said...

Why couldn't Bibi and Boehnor wait until after the elections in Israel? Three weeks and this would not look like the blatant political hack job that is.

Anonymous said...

Funny how when former commanders of our own military come out against how Obama is handling foregin policy it falls on deaf ears

Anonymous said...

so if this is supposed to be so bad and will make him look bad and lose the election,shouldn't you be happy about the speech then?

Dave Miller said...

So we had the speech... Netanyahu made his case and proposed no solutions.

He spoke of a deal they may not like, but can live with... Bibi, what does that look like?

Give us some specifics. Don't be like typical complaining right wingers who complain without any real answers.

If you do not like the deal we are making, give us an alternative that is both realistic, and can get done.

Ducky's here said...

I'm afraid it's a military solution or at least the current status quo, Dave.

No progress but the arms makers are thrilled.

Dave Miller said...

Anon... military leaders, past and present, are remarkably diverse in their views about action.

How do you reconcile your 11:54 comment, which seems to support a contrary view to Obama, with views of past commanders who held contrary views to those held by the Bush Admin?

No one side has a corner on the correct views, but we can be sure a side that only looks at views favoring their own, rarely is being intellectually honest.

Dave Miller said...

Anon @ 12:07...

Actually, many political commenters have said this should help him win the election.

I've got no dog in this... I just don't think congress should be going behind the President's back and inviting critical state leaders of state to address the American people.

There was a time when the Dems controlled Congress and Israel was unhappy with the way the Bush Admin was treating them. Did the Dems invite the PM of Israel to address Congress in an attempt to embarrass Pres. Bush?

Of course not, because it would have been an affront to the Pres.

Dave Miller said...

Shaw,

Paul Waldman sums up Bibi's approach quite succinctly...

1) Iran is a nation run by genocidal maniacs; most everyone agrees with this!2) they want nuclear weapons so they can annihilate Israel; again, most all agree on this and 3) the best way to stop this is to abandon negotiations to limit their nuclear program and just wait to see what they do. ...that’s the position Netanyahu and his supporters in the Republican Party are now committed to.

Is there any other interpretation of a stance that says do not negotiate?

Anyone???