Where Bibi Leads, the GOP Will Follow

[Rob L 3,811]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/17/the-grim-reality-of-bibi-s-win-for-americans.html

GOP HERO

03.17.15

Where Bibi Leads, the GOP Will Follow

A day before his apparent victory in Israel, the prime minister rejected a two-state solution. Now expect Republicans to follow him—destroying a rare point of unity with Democrats.

Yes, it looks like Bibi Netanyahu has a better shot than Bougie Herzog does of forming the next government. There are many moving parts here, so it’s not completely set in stone. But the clear consensus by 5 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday, an hour after the polls closed, was that Netanyahu and Likud have a clearer path to 61 seats than Herzog and the Zionist Union party do.

I’ll leave it to others who know the intricacies of Israeli politics better than I to parse all that. But let’s talk about the impact of a possible Netanyahu victory on our politics here in the United States. The answer is appallingly simple, I think: Though we won’t see this happen immediately or sensationally, it seems clear that, month by month and inch by gruesome inch, a Netanyahu win will move the Republican Party further to the right, to an unofficial (and who knows, maybe official) embrace of Netanyahu’s pivotal and tragic new position of opposition to a two-state solution.

Netanyahu declared said opposition, as you know, the day before the voting, when he stated, in a videotaped interview: “Whoever today moves to establish a Palestinian state and withdraw from territory is giving attack territory for Islamic extremists against the state of Israel. Whoever ignores that is burying his head in the sand.” When his questioner asked if this meant a Palestinian state would not be established on his watch, the prime minister said: “Indeed.”

Bibi is the American right’s über-hero, and there’s every reason to think Republicans will follow where he leads.

Now, it’s been known in Israel and America that this was Netanyahu’s true view of things for some time. He partially gave the game away last summer during a press conference. But he never quite said it as directly as he did Monday, in the culminating event of his final, frenzied, fear-mongering campaign. Israeli leaders of the major parties have at least officially supported a two-state solution for many years. But as of Monday, opposition to a two-state solution is official Israel policy, and as long as Bibi’s the boss, it will remain so.

The United States has officially supported a two-state solution at least since George H.W. Bush was president. Presidents of both parties, and even virtually all serious presidential contenders from both parties, have been on record in favor of a two-state solution. Each president has put varying spins on what it means, and has invested more (Bill Clinton) or less (George W. Bush) elbow grease in trying to bring such a solution about. But it has been the bipartisan position in the United States for 25 years or more, and that has meant there at least was a pretense—and sometimes more than that—of a shared goal somewhere down the road between Israel and Fatah (admittedly not Hamas).

Now Netanyahu has ditched that. How will our Republicans react? Well, they love Netanyahu. As they recently demonstrated to us all, he is, in effect, their president, at least on matters relating to the Middle East and Iran. Is it so crazy to think that what Bibi says, the Republicans will soon also be saying?

Now throw Sheldon Adelson into this stewpot. There are many reasons the Republican Party as a whole has become so epileptically pro-Israel in recent years: their ardor for Bibi, the power of the lobby, the influence of the Christian Zionist movement, and more. But another one of those reasons is surely Adelson. When you’re that rich and that willing to throw multiple millions into U.S. and Israeli electoral politics (to the GOP and Likud), you become influential. Adelson is completely opposed to a Palestinian state. “To go and allow a Palestinian state is to play Russian roulette,” he said in October 2013.

There is already a history of GOP candidates making their hajjes, so to speak, out to Adelson’s Las Vegas base of operations and saying what he wants to hear. John Judis wrote about this in The New Republic a year ago. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and John Kasich trotted out to Vegas and filled Adelson’s ear with pretty music. Judis: “The presidential hopefuls made no attempt to distinguish their views on Israel and the Palestinians from Adelson’s.” Christie even apologized for having once used the phrase “occupied territories”!

So here we are today: Bibi, their hero, has said it openly, and “proved” (for the time being) that saying it pays electoral dividends; their base certainly believes it; and Adelson and his checkbook make it potentially quite a profitable thing for them to say. So watch the Republican candidates start announcing that they’re against the two-state solution. Some will be coy about it (Bush, probably). Others—Ted Cruz, and I suspect Walker, who’s already been acting like foreign policy isjust a little make-believe game anyway, an arena that exists merely for the purpose of bashing Barack Obama and pandering to the base—will likely be less coy.

If this happens, do not underestimate the enormity of the change it heralds. As of now, I am told by people who know, no Republican legislator in Washington has explicitly disavowed a two-state solution. The closest Congress has come to doing so was on a 2011 resolution offered by then-Representative Joe Walsh that called for congressional support for Israeli annexation of “Judea and Samaria.” Walsh got a number of co-sponsors, 27 of whom are still in office.

But that was then. Four years later, Bibi is the American right’s über-hero, and there’s every reason to think Republicans will follow where he leads. And so a rare point on which our two parties were, however notionally, united, will likely be yet another point of division—and given the intensity of feeling here, bitter division. Republicans will think they can increase their percentage among Jewish voters. The current polls indicate that three-quarters to four-fifths of U.S. Jews (about the percentage that votes Democratic) back a two-state solution. But if Bibi proved anything these last few days, he proved that demagoguery and lies can alter percentages. Brace yourselves.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

They should just give him their 2016 nomination. Short of that, they should put up an equal blowhard. A certain Cuban-Canadian comes to mind...

[LibCampFireClub 635]

Bibi invited 0bama to dance, and all 0bama got were some bruised toes to match his bruised ego. The people of Israel and the US have provided mandates for everyone to see as they know what's needed to deal with Islamic Terrorism. So whom shall it be: Neville Chamberlain, or Winston Churchill?

"An appeaser feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last"

--Winston Churchill

[decocker 7,198]

Bibi invited 0bama to dance, and all 0bama got were some bruised toes to match his bruised ego. The people of Israel and the US have provided mandates for everyone to see as they know what's needed to deal with Islamic Terrorism. So whom shall it be: Neville Chamberlain, or Winston Churchill?

"An appeaser feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last"

--Winston Churchill

now now, can't going around comparing israel to a crocodile. i'm sure they've no intention of eating us, as long as we keep showing up with the money.

[ZA_35 48]

now now, can't going around comparing israel to a crocodile. i'm sure they've no intention of eating us, as long as we keep showing up with the money.

:rofl:

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

now now, can't going around comparing israel to a crocodile. i'm sure they've no intention of eating us, as long as we keep showing up with the money.

[JohnR! 5,495]

That's a valid question. Will Bibi stop coming to Obama, hat in hand, looking for our tax payer money or will he man up and act like the big boy he wants to be?

now now, can't going around comparing israel to a crocodile. i'm sure they've no intention of eating us, as long as we keep showing up with the money.

Edited March 19, 2015 by JohnR!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I think the more important question is - now that Bibi let the cat out of the sack that he's not interested in a solution to the Palestinian issue - whether the US will continue to block international action on Israels continued illegal settlement activity in Palestinian territory. There are indications that the US posture at the UN will change as a result of Bibi's open rejection of a two state solution.

[decocker 7,198]

I think the more important question is - now that Bibi let the cat out of the sack that he's not interested in a solution to the Palestinian issue - whether the US will continue to block international action on Israels continued illegal settlement activity in Palestinian territory. There are indications that the US posture at the UN will change as a result of Bibi's open rejection of a two state solution.

fingers crossed.

That's a valid question. Will Bibi stop coming to Obama, hat in hand, looking for our tax payer money or will he man up and act like the big boy he wants to be?

bibi loves him some us welfare.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

fingers crossed.

bibi loves him some us welfare.

And yet the right celebrates him as an uber-hero. I always thought they didn't like welfare queens. Maybe they really don't but have more sympathy for welfare kings?

fingers crossed.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/israels-america-united-116203.html

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I am a supporter of Israel but not Herr Bibi. I would like to believe that his statement will cost him dearly and a loss of support here in the US. I am afraid that the OP is the bizarre but more likely outcome.

[JohnR! 5,495]

I am a strong supporter or Israel and Palestine. I know for a fact The People of both countries want to live in peace, raise their families and prosper. Both countries have a unique opportunity to come to an agreement and show the world how peace can happen.

The problem is that peace only helps the little guy to prosper. War is where the big bucks are for the makers of weapons and other one-time use paraphernalia. War is great business, and that is what the GnOP is always pushing for armed conflicts.

I am a supporter of Israel but not Herr Bibi. I would like to believe that his statement will cost him dearly and a loss of support here in the US. I am afraid that the OP is the bizarre but more likely outcome.

[decocker 7,198]

And yet the right celebrates him as an uber-hero. I always thought they didn't like welfare queens. Maybe they really don't but have more sympathy for welfare kings?

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/israels-america-united-116203.html

him and putin, the right is an odd bunch.

[Teddy B 17,251]

now now, can't going around comparing israel to a crocodile. i'm sure they've no intention of eating us, as long as we keep showing up with the money.

[JohnR! 5,495]

Not so odd. They are consistent in their vision of Ameяika as a country ruled by oligarchs, where some people are kept in their place, by force or social circumstance, and where mid century fascism and medieval religious zealotry rule.

him and putin, the right is an odd bunch.

Edited March 19, 2015 by JohnR!