Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned trip to Washington this March is the result of an invitation from the US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner to address Congress on Iran. It is an invite whose timing Netanyahu will find hard to resist — letting him take centre stage in Washington while about to seek a new term in a general election for the Knesset. And the topic will allow the right-wing leader to expound on the dangers of rapprochement with Tehran, who Israel says is intent on destroying it.
That invite, however, also allows Republicans an opportunity to show that they indeed remain strong allies of Netanyahu. The ties between the Israeli lobby and Republicans are strong, with Israel obtaining sweetheart deals from the military and defence industrial nexus as well as counting on an unwavering support at the United Nations Security Council. Netanyahu can only continue to build new colonies in occupied East Jerusalem with the support of the US veto. That veto was also in play when it came to condemning Netanyahu’s unbridled brutal war on the Gaza Strip last summer.
The invite also allows the Republicans to exert independence in a highly polarised Washington. With the party controlling both the House and the Senate, the invite extended to Netanyahu is a clear sign that the party wants to set its own course, laying the groundwork for a post-Obama Washington.
What is also interesting is that the invitation to visit Washington was extended without a referral to the White House. The norms of protocol normally override partisan politics and when an invitation is extended to a head of state to visit — particularly one so divisive and controversial as the current Israeli premier — officials in the State Department and The White House should have been informed as a matter of due course.
Clearly, Obama is being politically ostracised — and with his veto pen his only remaining power, the Republican leadership is in a petty partisan mode. And Netanyahu fits that mode.
