So John Boehner knew how he could get back at Barack Obama: by inviting Benjamin Netanyahu to come before Congress and unload on the administration over its negotiations with Iran, which both Republicans and Likudniks find insufficiently belligerent. In my Plum Line post today, I suggest that maybe this is a good thing, if it finally gets us to all admit that Israel is a partisan issue, and American and Israeli politicians are partisan participants in each other's politics. Here are some excerpts:
For years we've had one party (the Republicans) that is fervently committed to the right-wing Likud's vision for Israel, and another party (the Democrats) that is much more committed to the Israeli Labor party's vision. When each holds the White House, they put those beliefs into policy. But both will say only that we all have a bipartisan commitment to "support" the Jewish state, as though what "support" means is always simple and clear….
Benjamin Netanyahu is the leader of his country, but he's also the leader of that faction, and at the moment he's in the midst of an election campaign (one the Obama administration would be all too happy to see him lose). If Congressional Republicans want him to come be a spokesperson for the Republican position in the debate over Iran, that's fine. But we should use the occasion to allow ourselves a little honestly. Yes, the United States and Israel are close allies whose core interests are aligned. But in neither country is there agreement about how to serve those interests. There's no such thing as a "pro-Israel" position on this issue, because Israelis themselves have a profound dispute about it, just as there's no such thing as one "pro-America" position on anything we argue about.
So we can call this speech what it is: an effort by one conservative politician to help a bunch of other conservative politicians achieve their preferred policy. Maybe afterward, John Boehner can return the favor and cut some ads advocating Netanyahu's reelection.
Here's the rest. And if you haven't had enough of me today, here's my first column for The Week, about "American Sniper" and the latest wave of political arguments over pop culture. Also, very soon I'll be doing leash reviews for Dog Fancy and bunsen burner analysis for the Journal of Fluid Dynamics.
