Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today gave a speech to Congress that was remarkably similar to yesterday’s speech at AIPAC, complete with the attempts to liken Iran to Nazi Germany, and the demands to abandon the ongoing nuclear talks in favor of forcing Iran into a “better deal” through unspecified means.
Netanyahu declared that Iran is “busy gobbling up nations,” and has its eyes on subjugating the whole world. It should be noted, of course, Iran has exactly three allied nation-states, and the only recent one is neighboring Iraq, which has become close to Iran since the US installed a Shi’ite government there in the 2003 invasion/occupation.
While railing against Iran’s “march of conquest,” Netanyahu declared the nation “will always be an enemy of America,” and that the ongoing nuclear talks would ensure Iran would have nuclear arms.
Netanyahu went on with a falsehood-laden speech by claiming Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted, in English, for Israel to be “annihilated.” A quick survey of Khamenei’s tweets reveal, by contrast, that his tweets on Israel included: calling on all Christians, Jews, and Muslims to unite in criticizing Israeli war crimes, quoting Nelson Mandela calling for Palestinian self-determination, and in a direct response to the question of how to “eliminate” Israel, calling for a referendum among all people of all religions living there to form a new government, while explicitly saying Iran opposes military action against Israel.
While the speech was boycotted by a number of Congressional Democrats (58 by most counts), there was little White House response to the speech itself, while hawks all cheered Netanyahu’s statesmanship.
The administration seemed to be betting that saying Obama didn’t intend to even watch Netanyahu’s speech would be sufficient, and having done that seems content to once again let an Israeli leader dictate US policy without serious response.
Oh no; Iran is as powerful as Nazi Germany! Having lived thru WW2, I don't think Iran has much of a chance of marching to the gates of Moscow, or parading a "6th" army thru the Arch de Triumph.
Interesting definition of ¨statesmanship¨. In South America we call such politicians rabble-rousers. And indeed, the rabble did rise for this one. Woe on you America, when such easily led and bought people are your ´natural leaders´; woe on the rest of us as well if we are to ever again follow where you lead.
Jason Ditz wrote a very biased article that does not reflect the actual Netanyahu speech. What a waste of space and time. He is not a journalist. He is a left wing loon.