Israeli “media” is reporting that Obama/Kerry can’t stand Netanyahu. Another great reason to like Bibi!!! pic.twitter.com/hWGmtcQY6Z
— Zvi Lando (@zlando) October 26, 2014
In an already much talked about article for The Atlantic, “The Crisis in U. S. – Israeli Relations is Officially Here,” Jeffrey Goldberg quotes a senior administration official accusing Benjamin Netanyahu – among a long list of unpleasant things — of being a “chickensh*t.”
Never mind for a moment the absurdity of an (of course anonymous) Obama official calling the Israeli PM a coward when Netanyahu has been personally under fire in two wars, volunteering for the second after having been wounded by a gun shot in the first (his brother, as many will remember, was killed during the raid on Entebbe — both Netanyahus were in Sayeret Matkal) at approximately the time the official’s boss Barry was lulling on a balmy Hawaiian beach smoking “choom” with his gang. What’s the right word for this? Hypocrisy is a bit weak, isn’t it? Or is it simply the desperate rumblings of a failed administration?
In any case, Goldberg was a “good boy” for transmitting it and I hope he gets another opportunity for a “hard-hitting” interview with POTUS. I further hope the author achieves his ambition and restrains those bellicose Israelis from renting or buying apartments in Arab East Jerusalem. After all, the Arab countries have been so welcoming to their Jewish populations. Oh, wait… they’re Judenrein, barely a single Jew in evidence. And Abu Mazen has refused ever to have Jews living within a future Palestinian state. My mistake. Never mind again. I’m sure Goldberg omitted all this by accident.
Actually, ninety percent of his article is on the level of dog bites man. We all know Obama et al don’t like the Israelis, not just their prime minister and his supposedly loose-lipped defense minister Yaalon, and probably a whole host of other officials of the Jewish state, not to mention a vast percentage of the Israeli populace. This opprobrium on Obama’s part has been going on for a long time, even before he took office. (Remember the still mysterious Khalidi tape?)
But there is something of importance in Goldberg’s article. Like me (we’re on paragraph 5 here), he buried his lede. I learned about this through a tweet by Brian Faughnan: Buried lede in that piece on Bibi: WH thinks Iran’s nuke program pretty damn far along. Faughnan is referring to the following from Goldberg:
The official said the Obama administration no longer believes that Netanyahu would launch a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in order to keep the regime in Tehran from building an atomic arsenal. “It’s too late for him to do anything. Two, three years ago, this was a possibility. But ultimately he couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger. It was a combination of our pressure and his own unwillingness to do anything dramatic. Now it’s too late.”
Goldberg goes on to explain this proves Bibi is a “chickensh*t” (no, I’m not afraid to use profanity; read my novels. But those are the rules of this site…) because he didn’t act against the mullahs two years ago, but what it really shows, to people genuinely interested, is that the administration assumes Iran is too close to the bomb to make an attack worth it. That is far more interesting and, needless to say dangerous, than anybody’s opinion about Benjamin Netanyahu.
Moreover, if you’re looking for a coward, how about the man who said nothing several years ago when the demonstrators in the streets of Tehran we’re shouting “Obama, Obama, are you with us or are you with them?”
That is a genuine “chickensh*t.” Or someone on the side of Islamofascism. What do you think about that, Jeffrey Goldberg?
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