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Principled US Rep Schakowsky opposes Netanyahu speech

Posted on February 25, 2015February 26, 2015 By rayhanania No Comments on Principled US Rep Schakowsky opposes Netanyahu speech
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An Israel Supporter Who Won’t be at the Prime Minister’s Speech

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky explains why she cannot support or attend the speech planned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an unofficial joint session of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate

English: Official biographic pic of the congre...
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WASHINGTON, DC/February 25, 2015 – “After much thought, I have made the decision not to attend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s March 3 scheduled address before a joint session of Congress, while still hoping it will either be postponed to a more appropriate date or delivered in a closed session.

Ziyad Taste of the Middle East

As a Jew, support for Israel is in my DNA.  Throughout my nine terms in the U.S. House, I have advocated that Congress and the Administration stand with Israel in a bi-partisan way to protect Israel’s security and very right to exist.  I strongly agree with both the Prime Minister of Israel and the President of the United States that Iran can never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon.

That is why I feel particularly anguished that the ill-advised invitation from Republican House Speaker John Boehner has managed to threaten, in my view, both the security of Israel and the historic bi-partisan support in the Congress.

Much has been made of the ham-handed politics: inviting the Prime Minister to speak two weeks before his election and failing to consult with either the President or House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.  As much as I agree with those critics, I am more concerned about two lasting and serious consequences that could result from the Prime Minister’s actions.

First is the scuttling of the delicate negotiations with Iran, the goal of which is to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.  The Prime Minister wants the negotiations to end, and his purpose in speaking to the Congress is to convince us that the President is about to agree to a deal that threatens Israel’s existence.  He believes the President is naïve in thinking that he and the P5+1 can achieve any agreement that will stop Iran from rushing toward a bomb.

The Prime Minister may be correct that no deal can be reached.  In fact, President Obama and his negotiators go into this with eyes wide open.  As the President has said, “A bad deal is worse than no deal.”  But even if there is only a small chance that an agreement can be reached that will prevent Iran from building, perhaps within months, a nuclear weapon, why not keep working at it?  Having been briefed about the some of the non-negotiables that the U.S. and our allies have put forth, I strongly favor letting the talks proceed unhindered.  If the talks are to fail, let Iran be the party that walks away from the table rather than the United States.  If the U.S. were the cause of the collapse, our allies in the carefully crafted P5+1 would drop their support for the sanctions regime, shattering the international effort to stop Iran.

What is the alternative to an agreement?  Yes, the United States will increase sanctions.  But does anyone doubt that Iran will build a nuclear weapon regardless of sanctions?  Then the choices will be ugly: accepting a nuclear weaponized Iran or military action, i.e. war with Iran.  For me it’s obvious that we must give the negotiations a chance.  And, in the meantime, Iran has essentially halted its weapons program under the Joint Plan of Action while the talks are ongoing.

My second concern is the damage that has been done to bi-partisan support for Israel.  This is not the first time that the Republicans have tried to divide the Democrats and paint themselves as the only true supporters of Israel.  The reality is that, when it comes to tangible deliverables, the Obama Administration has been unfailing in its cooperation with Israel — more so than most, if not all, Administrations over the last 40 years.

As columnist Doug Bloomfield notes:

  •  “Obama has never embargoed arms to Israel as Reagan did to punish it for bombing Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor.  Reagan even joined with Iraqi diplomats in writing and passing a UN resolution condemning the Israeli attack.
  • Obama never sought to delay or cut aid to Israel approved by Congress as both the Reagan and Bush 41 administrations did.
  • President Ford ordered a ‘reassessment’ of relations with Israel in 1975 because of what the administration called Israeli ‘intransigence’ in negotiations with Egypt and Syria.”

As an eight year member of the House Intelligence Committee, I know for a fact that our security and intelligence agencies have never worked more closely, making it all the harder to swallow the Prime Minister coming to lobby our Congress, in the most public and heretofore prestigious settings, to reject U.S. efforts to peacefully eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons in Iran.  As Meir Dagan, former head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, said: ‘Netanyahu’s position will not change the West’s position on the Iranian issue, but his actions bring our relationship with the Americans to an extreme point and this might extract an unbearable price from us in the future.’  In talking to my Democratic colleagues, I believe this is not an idle concern.

There is still time to reschedule or relocate the speech.  Prime Minister Netanyahu, his Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, and House Speaker John Boehner should immediately rethink this dangerous mistake and follow the advice of former Ambassador Michael Oren who said: ‘It’s advisable to cancel the speech to Congress so as not to cause a rift with the American government.’  And I would add, so as not to bring Israel, the United States and perhaps the world closer to war with Iran.”

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rayhanania
rayhanania
Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News
RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

Click here to send Ray Hanania email.

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