Netanyahu to meet with Obama, try to fix relationship with Democrats
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to try to improve Israel’s relationship with the democratic party during his trip to the United States in November after battling the Iran nuclear deal.
The Israeli lobby tried hard and succeeded in getting the PM invited to the Center for American Progress (CAP) . Netanyahu was able to secure an invitation and will address the institute on November 10th, which is the day after the PM is expected to meet with President Barack Obama. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) pressured CAP, playing the biggest role in getting Netanyahu an invite.
CAP employees were disappointed after news of Netanyahu’s planned appearance was reported by Jewish Insider, a news service covering U.S. politics and business news from a Jewish perspective.
“This is someone who is an enemy of the progressive agenda, who has targeted Israeli human rights organizations throughout his term, and was re-elected on the back of blatant anti-Arab race-baiting,” a former CAP employee Matt Duss said. “The idea that CAP would agree to give him bipartisan cover is really disappointing.”
Duss now is the head of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
Anti-Palestine groups also had something to say about Netanyahu’s choice of venue because CAP is an institution that was considered “unfair” with Israel’s government and the country itself.
The issue of the Iran nuclear deal was on the very top of Obama’s foreign policy agenda while Netanyahu spent over a year lobbying against it. Netanyahu accepted an invitation from John Boehner, Speaker of the House, to speak about the nuclear deal with Iran that had yet to be finalized.
A majority of the Democrats boycotted his speech, where Netanyahu stated that the nuclear deal would “all but guarantee” that Iran gets a hold on nuclear weapons. Eight months later from this event, a majority of the Democrats in the Senate and the House opposed Netanyahu and supported the nuclear deal.
“President Obama and I have both said that our differences over the nuclear deal are a disagreement within the family,” said Netanyahu earlier this month in an address for the United Nations, basically implying that members of a ‘family’ always solve their problems with each other.
Netanyahu’s failed attempt to eradicate the Iran deal led the Israeli embassy and AIPAC to begin spending millions of dollars on lobbying against it.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Obama on November 9 will be Netanyahu’s first visit to Washington since his speech with Congress. Netanyahu is also expected to receive an award from the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank.
