Netanyahu to Address Congress, Obama Calls It ‘Distraction’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress today to warn of the threat of Iran’s nuclear program. Advance details of his speech are limited, but one thing is clear: Barack Obama is really perturbed that Netanyahu is here. Administration officials have previously promised “there will be a price” for this “departure from … protocol” – despite Netanyahu having waited for Obama to be notified before accepting the invitation. (The New York Times finally got around to acknowledging this in a correction.) On Monday, Obama called Netanyahu’s speech a “mistake,” again pointing to Israel’s upcoming elections. “It makes it look like we are taking sides,” he complained, “It is a distraction from what should be our focus.” In this case, even Obama said the focus should be preventing Iran, the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, from obtaining nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, he’s also lost this focus, recently indicating we just need to “reduce the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon,” and, if it happens anyway in 10 years, what’s that to Obama?