TORONTO – Brazen and in-your-face, that sums up the international diplomatic style of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It works for him. Friends of Israel – there are some; just not in the country’s vicinity – must cringe at the mere thought that “Bibi” is coming to town. Think of the enormous security costs the host has to absorb to accommodate him and the disruption to their own agenda (maybe, just maybe, their own national interests have some validity) they undergo to hear his habitual refrain: “we are your border guards; give us more weapons, more quickly to do our job for your benefit”.
No sooner had President Joe Biden declared his intention to withdraw from a presidential race he had won – with massive numbers – and indicated he would endorse his Vice President, Kamala Harris, than Bibi announced he would go to Washington D.C. to address Congress (essential give his own ‘State of the Union Speech’ to Americans , and to the Democratic Party specifically) on Thursday July 24. Coincidently, that is the day Biden had set aside to expand on his intentions to withdraw.
Netanyahu’s usurpation of the agenda is classic ‘chutzpa’. He has been less than pleased at the American Administration’s admonishments of his conduct since 3,000 Hamas guerillas breached an impenetrable wall to rape, pillage, burn and kidnap while the vaunted Israeli security forces took a Siesta. He wanted to reassert himself with the Democratic Party. It is, normally, the preferred choice of the Jewish Diaspora and the political fundraisers originating from there.
To be kind, it was a classless move. About 50 members of Congress had better things to do. Several hundred protesters occupied the rotunda on Capital Hill, Thousands of protesters marched to the Congressional precinct, Vice President Kamala Harris burst out in a diplomatic fever and could not attend, similarly with Republican Vice-presidential Candidate J.D. Vance. Bibi resorted to hectoring his critics and admonishing his hosts – classy.
In the end, perhaps, it was a good thing that National TV needed to turn to Biden’s farewell speech later in the evening. He read it well. Yet, for all their efforts to be upbeat about the President’s performance, commentators could not shake the look of gloomy disappointment that Bibi had forced his agenda on a momentous day in American history and treat their President’s legacy like the lining on the floor of the birdcage.
The irony is that Israelis and Diaspora Jews were virtually as one in condemning Bibi. Yet another miscalculation on his part to stay relevant and afloat.
