Netanyahu plays party politics in US

ISRAELI PM PREPARES TO ADDRESS REPUBLICAN-LED CONGRESS, STRAINING OFFICIAL TIES

Israeli prime minister prepares to address Republican-led Congress, straining ties with Obama administration

When President Barack Obama’s national security adviser sat down with her Israeli counterpart at the White House last week, she upbraided him over leaks in occupied Jerusalem that the Americans interpreted as an attempt to undermine nuclear negotiations with Iran.

The meeting, shielded from the public but fraught with tension, brought home the depth of the frustration between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It is a mutual enmity that has only grown in recent days as the Israeli premier prepares to address the Republican-led Congress next week about the dangers of a possible nuclear deal with Iran.

What started out last month as a dispute over a speech has consumed the two sides ever since, threatening long-term consequences and possibly fracturing America’s tradition of bipartisan support for Israel.

The president’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, evidently was not mollified by the meeting with Yossi Cohen, her Israeli counterpart, since she said in a television interview on Tuesday night that Netanyahu’s actions were “destructive” because they were injecting partisanship into the relationship.

Her comment came even as Netanyahu turned down a new invitation to meet separately with Senate Democrats while in Washington, further fuelling the partisan flavour of the dispute. For their part, as of Wednesday afternoon, administration officials had not told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a bipartisan pro-Israel lobby, who — if anyone — it was sending to its annual conference in Washington starting Sunday.

The relationship “has never been so terrible as it is today,” said Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser. “Nobody even tries to use any diplomatic words.”

‘Badly broken’

Eytan Gilboa, an expert on Israeli-American relations at Bar-Ilan University, called Rice’s comment “unprecedented” and told Israel Radio that it was clear the long-standing bipartisanship that underpinned the alliance “has now been badly broken.”

The polarisation seems to be growing. J Street, a pro-Israel group more aligned with Obama’s positions on Iran, is running a full-page ad in Thursday newspapers attacking Netanyahu for coming to Capitol Hill just two weeks before his own election. “Prime Minister Netanyahu: Congress Isn’t a Prop for Your Election Campaign,” the ad declares.

On the other side, Republicans were happy to portray Democrats as insufficiently supportive of Israel. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vicepresidential candidate, began selling $35 (Dh128) T-shirts that say “I Stand With Bibi,” using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Obama and the Democrats refuse to stand with Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu,” her political action committee said in an email to supporters. “Will you?”

For many Israel supporters, including those at AIPAC who have laboured to maintain support across the aisle, the splintering represents a profound danger. AIPAC will try to counter the trend by sending supporters to all 535 congressional offices during its three-day conference.

But critics and even some supporters of Netanyahu were dismayed by his decision to decline an invitation from Senators Richard Durbin, two of Israel’s strongest Democratic supporters, to meet with Democrats while in town.

“Since when does an Israeli prime minister say no to a meeting with Democrats?’’ said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York. He added: “By the way, their Israeli voting record is impeccable. Not good, not very good, impeccable. The Democrats extend a hand of sorts and he says no? This defies explanation.”

An Israeli official said Netanyahu turned down the Democrats because he also declined an invitation to meet separately with congressional Republicans. While he accepted an invitation to address a joint meeting of Congress from Speaker John A. Boehner, a Republican, that was extended on behalf of the Congress as a body and both parties are invited. The partisanship has been created by others, the Israeli official said.

What started out last month as a dispute over a speech has consumed the two sides ever since, threatening long-term consequences and possibly fracturing America’s tradition of bipartisan support for Israel. The president has said the relationship between the US and Israel can’t just be reduced to a relationship between the Republican party and the Likud party.” Spokesman for Barack Obama | The White House

‘Last chance’

“It was important to try to keep this as bipartisan as possible,” said the official, who asked not to be named in keeping with diplomatic protocol. “That’s why he rejected both requests he had for meetings from Republicans and Democrats.” Instead, Netanyahu will focus on the speech to Congress. “From his perspective, it’s the last chance he has to voice the deep concerns he and many others in Israel have as we see this agreement with Iran taking shape.”