Is Bibi Bad for Business?
Israel’s deeply polarizing PM, Benjamin Netanyahu is widely known for going to great lengths to reap narrow political gains at the behest of the American politics
Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu addressing a joint session of Congress on July 24, 2024. Image via X
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a long and infamous history of inserting himself into the American policymaking process through various means and venues.
He doesn’t even care or contemplate how his individual actions and public stunts could deeply affect the lives of other people around the world.
Every single instance of Bibi’s highly-publicized appearances has escalated polarization in American political landscape. The most recent appearance of the PM was so polarizing and unpalatable that many Democratic party figures and elites chose to skip the event and did not participate in standing ovation after standing ovation of Bibi’s punchlines.
Apparently, Bibi has appeared on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives a total of four times (1996, 2011, 2015, 2024) and has participated in many other international political venues. Nevertheless, for the sake of brevity, here are a few notable examples of Bibi’s public stunts in America, both as Prime Minister and as a certain ‘Middle East expert’:
After the 9/11 attacks
Bibi Netanyahu (above) ‘working’ the members of U.S. Congress as hard as it could. Image via screenshot of C-Span video clip of the hearing in September 12, 2002.
On September 12, 2002, at a congressional hearing, Bibi Netanyahu skillfully exploited (and, let’s be honest, manipulated) the Americans’ thirst for payback against the perceived perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by calling on American lawmakers to invade Iraq and bring freedom and democracy to the dirt-poor Arab nation. This move unsurprisingly resulted in a catastrophic disaster for America and the entire Middle East region down the line.
I really wonder if lawmakers back in 2002 remotely considered how devastating the decision to go to war in the Middle East would be and how it would cost U.S. taxpayers $8 trillion, result in millions of civilian and non-civilian deaths, and, on top of these, lead to the rise of radicalism in the broader Middle East that cannot be easily contained.”
In the run up to the Nuclear Deal with Iran
In April 2015, the embattled Israeli politician rushed to the U.S. Congress to personally and publicly lobby against an emerging multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, to which the U.S. administration of Barack Obama was a party. The deal was supported by major powers, including Russia and China, but opposed by Republicans, the Israeli right-wing, and, last but not least, Bibi Netanyahu. The Israeli PM eventually persuaded the Trump White House to withdraw from the deal on May 8th, 2018 that lead to increasing tensions in the highly-volatile region.
Iran and five world powers plus Germany (P5+1) singed a multilateral nuclear deal that put limits on Iran’s enrichment capabilities in exchange for sanctions relief. Image July, 2015 via social media
The Iran nuclear deal was a thought to be a major component of the Obama administration’s stabilizing approach in the Middle-East, which Bibi personally to it took himself to task of working against it:
“Netanyahu’s combative — and at times poetic — address to the U.S. Congress was more than a critique of Obama’s Iran policy. It was a detailed repudiation of the U.S. leader’s entire approach to the Middle East and the very idea of talking to the Islamic Republic, which the Israeli leader said was waging a “deadly Game of Thrones” for regional hegemony. Engaging Iran has been an Obama goal since he was a presidential candidate, but the Israeli leader set out to prove his American counterpart is naive about the dangers of the Middle East and the treacherous forces that are tearing it apart.”
There is definitely no love lost between Barack Obama (top right) and Bibi Netanyahu (top left) when the former was in the White House from 2009 to 2016. Image via social media
The Obama-Netanyahu animosity is a widely-known feature of post-9/11 U.S.-Israeli relations. Even the Democratic party at large, once a staunch supporter of Israel has been increasingly moving away from Israel for many reasons, particularly the hardline direction that the Middle-East nation is slowly but surely moving toward which is highly unpalatable to Democratic party’s values and ideology.
Bibi can be blamed for single-handedly dismantling the traditional bipartisan support of American elites toward the Middle-Eastern nation. That’s quite an achievement.
Just weeks before the most important U.S. presidential election in recent history
Bibi’s July 25th address to the joint session of Congress, despite the absence of many Democratic lawmakers and political figures, aimed to garner support from Republicans and MAGA supporters while securing financial and military aid for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Israeli PM, Bibi Netanyahu addressed the joint session of Congress on July 25, 2024 to shore up support for the handling of the nation’s war in Gaza. Appereantly many Democratic party’s high-profile figures skipped the event and later on criticized the PM’s speech. Image via screenshot of YouTube clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z7K9C6CF9c
Bibi’s speech highlighted a significant aspect of contemporary American-Israeli relations: the shift from once-bipartisan, widespread U.S. support for Israel to predominantly GOP and MAGA-aligned backing.
In other words, Bibi, fully aware of his deep unpopularity among both regular and elite Democrats, inserted himself into the U.S. political landscape to remind the world’s superpower that, despite its intentions to withdraw from the complexities of Middle Eastern geopolitics, the region will continue to play a significant role in its foreign policy agenda, whether it likes it or not.
The unfriendly relations between Israel and the U.S. is not limited to Barack Obama, a coterie of Democratic party elites, and the progressive ‘squad’. It is now more widespread than ever among the wider party.
More importantly, Kamala Harris, the Democratic party’s 2024 presidential hopeful who served four years as VP to Joe Biden and was once a reliable supporter of Israeli policies in the U.S. Senate, now appears unable to tolerate Netanyahu, as evidenced by her absence during his speech to Congress.
Kamala knows that Bibi is bad for business; she knows that Bibi is bad company, so she will go to great lengths to avoid appearing next to the polarizing Israeli PM. No one could and should blame the VP for that.
Senators Tim Kaine, Patty Murray, Bernie Sanders, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley, Chris Van Hollen, and influential members of Congress like Jim Clyburn, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Jerry Nadler, Pramila Jayapal, and many others boycotted Netanyahu’s speech. They did not want to be associated with Bibi, recognizing that his presence could harm the Democratic party’s political prospects, especially with a new president set to be elected in just nine weeks.
Bibi should steer clear of American politics due to his negative influence
Pro-Gaza protesters burned U.S. flag and effigy of PM Netanyahu a few blocks away from the Capitol building on July 25, 2024 to express their anger at the right-wing Israeli politician’s speech at the joint session of Congress. Image via web
Last but not least, Bibi’s present at this critical juncture caused so much anger and resentment among the mostly-Democratic party voters that they burned flags of the U.S., and effigy of Netanyahu a few blocks outside the U.S. Capitol building.
Is there any other foreign leader who has stirred such intense negative passions among certain groups? For instance, when Japan’s Prime Minister or Mexico’s President visit D.C., do protesters swarm the area, burning American flags and effigies of these leaders? The answer is a definite NO.
So, Bibi undoubtedly carries an aura of destabilization and polarization that profoundly impacts the social and political harmony of the U.S. political landscape.
Bibi’s presence stirs polarization and intense emotions, quickly leading to chaos and violence.
This is not a good sign and it should be considered otherwise.
I bet Bibi and his team are fully aware of how volatile and polarizing the Israeli presence is and therefore plan to leverage it to their political and material advantage by election day.
We shall wait and see.
