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Home > He is running for office--in Israel

PM Netanyahu has delivered his speech to the Joint Session of Congress at the invitation of Speaker Boehner. Netanyahu's grand entrance to the floor of the house a la the President's for the SOU should not confuse us. Netanyahu wants to remain Prime Minister of Israel, but if he can manage U.S. foreign policy, he would consider that a plus.

Here is his address to the Congress, via CSPAN [1] (at about 15 minutes).

Commentary: William Galston at Brookings [2] on recent polling. Robert Hunter at Lobelog [3] on outcomes of successful negotiations. Bernard Avishai at the New Yorker [4] on what Netanyahu really wants--war. George Friedman [5] at Stratfo on the U.S. dilemma in shaping a ME balance of power with or without Israel (HT: Jim Pauwels). Here's a British take on the speech. [6]  Reporters from the Guardian [7] have annotated the speech. And here's Jon Stewart!! [8](R-rated metaphors!)

No fan of NYTimes editorials, I think they got this one right: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel could not have hoped for a more rapturous welcome in Congress. With Republicans and most Democrats as his props, he entered the House of Representatives to thunderous applause on Tuesday, waving his hand like a conquering hero and being mobbed by fawning lawmakers as he made his way to the dais. Even Washington doesn’t often see this level of exploitative political theater;.....More substantive points here. [9]

Tags
Foreign Affairs [10]
Middle East [11]
Terrorism [12]
War and Peace [13]

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

Please email comments to l[email protected] [14] and join the conversation on our Facebook page [15].

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Source URL: https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/he-running-office-israel

Links
[1] http://www.c-span.org/video/?324609-2/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-address-congress
[2] http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/02/20-galston-netanyahu-march-congress-nuclear-address-american-public-opinion-iran?utm_campaign=Brookings+Brief&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=16328401&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_0hhtHzT3eSxJtcsL_YYXo-cnKFfbZlArklpw1CAqvv1Qg9Laur8D2pB4wqNI0pMSov73j85sfuO4Q6Ch4lMZQeh1a384hwvXbikaq-JZLJQ344xQ&_hsmi=16328401
[3] http://www.lobelog.com/looking-beyond-netanyahus-speech/
[4] http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/netanyahu-speech-congress?utm_source=tny&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailyemail&mbid=nl_030315_Daily&CNDID=24804624&spMailingID=7550806&spUserID=MjkxNzc4MTI5NTES1&spJobID=640220884&spReportId=NjQwMjIwODg0S0
[5] https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/netanyahu-obama-and-geopolitics-speeches
[6] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11447972/Netanyahu-throws-caution-to-the-winds-with-all-out-assault-on-Obamas-Iran-policy.html
[7] http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2015/mar/03/netanyahu-speech-congress-iran-nuclear-annotated
[8] http://thedailyshow.cc.com/full-episodes/hmp9gu/march-3--2015---sigourney-weaver
[9] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/opinion/netanyahu-israel-unconvincing-iran-speech-to-congress.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region
[10] https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/foreign-affairs
[11] https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/middle-east
[12] https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/terrorism
[13] https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/war-and-peace
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[18] https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/print/36967