Netanyahu blows up partisan hurricane with visit to US

The political hurricane caused by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his United States visit leaves him and President Barack Obama at even greater odds on how to tackle Iranian nuclear proliferation. His address to the joint session of the US Congress has now turned the issue into an even greater lightning rod in Washington's stormy political climate.

Invited by Republicans and unwelcome by Democrats, Netanyahu came to Capitol Hill and jumped into the centre of a long-running dispute between the president and his opponents in Congress who, along with some of Obama’s more hawkish fellow Democrats, want Iran’s nuclear programme torn down, not blocked.

The right-wing Netanyahu and left-wing Obama have seldom seen eye to eye in the past on the approach to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The prime minister’s uncompromising speech to Congress, in which he urged US politicians to block the president’s efforts to find a diplomatic resolution to prevent Tehran obtaining a nuclear bomb, is the latest public difference of opinion between the two leaders.

Snub From the outset, Netanyahu's acceptance of an invitation to address Congress from Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner was a direct snub to the president given that it circumvented traditional diplomatic protocol through the White House.

Obama refused to meet Netanyahu as he did not want to sway voters in the Israeli's elections. In clear election mode, the prime minister didn't hold back in his choice of words to Congress. Accepting a nuclear deal with Iran would be a "countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare" by a country that "will always be an enemy of America".

On the other side, Obama is hoping the US can reach a peaceful resolution for Iran's nuclear programme in the most daring diplomatic gamble by a US president since Richard Nixon embraced China.

For Netanyahu, given Iran's stated existential threat to Israel, the Tehran government is not a regime with which there can be negotiations. He lumped Iran with the violent Islamic State (IS) extremists, saying they were "competing for the crown of militant Islam".

Playing to the US public’s fears about IS, Netanyahu described the threat from both in evocative and dangerous terms: “In this deadly game of thrones there’s no place for America or for Israel, no peace for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone.”

Acknowledging the presence of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel in the public gallery, the prime minister warned that Israel would act alone if forced to. "I can guarantee you this: the days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies – those days are over," he said.

Sticking with a position of detachment towards his visit, Obama said afterwards that he had not watched the speech, though he had read a transcript. “As far as I can tell there was nothing new,” he said, noting the Israeli leader had offered no alternative to the proposed deal.

While agreeing with Netanyahu on the dangers posed by Iran, Obama sees his demands that Iran dismantle its nuclear programme, which Tehran says is for power generation purposes, as unrealistic.

Netanyahu in his speech did not row in behind Republicans by asking Congress to pass new sanctions, as many in Washington want, but his address has politicised US-Israeli relations, which for decades had drawn broad support from Democrats and Republicans alike.

That may cause Netanyahu problems at home, where Israelis will be keen not to alienate a long-term ally that offers critical military and diplomatic backing.

It has certainly caused problems in the US capital.