Sep 8, 2015

Whoever expected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to acknowledge his defeat and change his policy was mistaken. President Barack Obama ensured his victory Sept. 2 when he won over enough Democratic senators to support the Iranian nuclear agreement. Then, to everyone’s consternation, the defeated party declared a victory, too. Netanyahu is not prepared to lose, and evidently doesn’t know how to concede defeat graciously. For the first time, we have two winners of the same game.

If Obama won in the real world, then Netanyahu has declared a moral victory. His problem is that aside from himself and his Republican patrons, no one else in the world buys his story. Even the Saudis, who furiously attack the nuclear deal behind closed doors, expressed their official, public support for the deal at the end of last week. But Netanyahu remains adamant. He won, he is the voice of worldwide morality and ultimate righteousness. History will judge between him and Obama.

But until history gets around to it, Netanyahu must now rudely write the story himself. For many long months, Netanyahu was warned in all possible forums and media outlets that his fight in Congress was a lost cause and that his “scorched earth” policy could inflict significant damage on Israel’s strategic interests. It could damage Israel’s bargaining chips vis-a-vis the US administration and the deterrence capabilities of AIPAC and the American Jewish community. Netanyahu scoffed at and belittled those who warned him. He believed that he had a chance of winning and so invented the slogan “It’s a bad agreement, we need a better one.” He put all his chips on the table, raising the stakes instead of retreating into damage-control mode.

For weeks, Netanyahu counted hands in Congress and invested tremendous efforts into wooing Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who was supposed to be his knight in shining armor who would rally scores of additional Democrats. True, Schumer tried to deliver the goods, but almost no one got on the bandwagon. Instead, most of the Democrat votes flowed, as anticipated, into the camp of their president. Netanyahu should have understood this from the start, but whoever once convinced him that Obama would serve only one term in office now convinced him that he could win in Congress. Today, his people admit that they knew that the odds for winning in Congress were slim. If Netanyahu knew that, why did he put up such a fight?

There’s more. In February, I wrote here about internal opposition in AIPAC to Netanyahu’s speech to both houses of Congress set for March 3, two weeks before the March 17 Israeli elections. The article was followed by a wave of angry responses and refutation attempts, but the truth is now emerging above the water line. A report on the Israeli Walla site over the recent weekend quotes AIPAC officials who argue that Netanyahu’s visit to Congress actually sabotaged the chances of achieving a two-thirds majority on the Iran issue, for one simple reason: It turned the debate on Iranian nuclearization from an impartial, factual disagreement to a divisive controversy between the Democrats and Republicans. A foreign leader's attempt to drive a wedge between the Democrats and their president — during an election year, no less — simply drove many Democrats into Obama’s welcoming arms. Thus Netanyahu shot himself in the foot, sabotaging his own chances of winning the fight.