Last week Steve Clemons said that Netanyahu is Obama’s Khrushchev, and might define Obama’s presidency. Where did the leader of a tiny country get such power? Because Netanyahu believes he can "wield Congressional power via his levers in the American Jewish community to create painful costs for the White House…"
Clemons is talking about the Israel lobby. What could be more powerful than the former Soviet Union?
Well, today Tom Friedman says that Israel is our spouse.
Israel and America are having one of those periodic marital spats they have had over the years… knowing both families, I’d like to offer some free marriage counseling.
My correspondent Koozie writes:
George Washington warned about “foreign entanglements” yet we wake up this morning to find that the United States is MARRIED to Israel ? I know that Tom Friedman was using this hackneyed metaphor to make a point about a relationship, but I truly believe he let slip a telling remark that gives an insight into the mentality of a good part of the establishment. In most minds, the United States is married to Israel . We are way beyond entanglements. Every public statement about Israel (from Congress to the ten state Attorney Generals) is in effect like a public renewal of vows. Our fiscal obligations to Israel have taken on the moral and legal status of state sanctioned marriage. Our foreign policy, once marching proudly to the rhythm of our own convictions and interests, sways slovenly to the tune of Tammy Wynette. We stand by our man. We look the other way when our spouse acts like a lout or we make excuses. In the case of the ten state Attorney Generals, we even defend our spouse and straighten out the overturned tables and chairs after their drunken rampages.
Take a poll of Americans, and ask them how comfortable they feel about the United States being married to an Israel seen in the clarity of the morning light. I’ll bet the bank few of them would declare, “I do”.
