This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.

If President Obama agreed with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the White House yesterday that “Iran’s conciliatory words have to be matched by real actions – transparent, verifiable, meaningful actions. Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction,” the President should apply the same principle to Israel: “Israel’s conciliatory words have to be matched by real actions – transparent, verifiable, meaningful actions. Israel is committed to Palestine’s destruction.”

It’s so obvious. I doubt the thought escaped our clever President.

On Iran, President Obama continued: “We have to have actions that give the international community confidence that in fact they are meeting their international obligations fully and they are not in a position to have a nuclear weapon. We have to test diplomacy. We have to see if in fact they are serious about their willingness to abide by international norms and international law and international requirements and resolutions.” The President might just as well have been referring to Israel. The only change would be – “have a nuclear weapon.” Israel has quite a few already.

Sanctions are as sanctions go. In the past, I have argued for military intervention to drive Israel back to its 1967 borders. Perhaps I jumped the gun. The United States should impose sanctions on Israel first. Sanctions would be lifted when Israel abides by “international norms and international law and international requirements and resolutions.”

US government sponsored BDS. Imagine Samanatha Power announcing that at the UN right before Netanyahu speaks today.

Think what threatening Israel with sanctions would do for America’s standing in the world. To begin, it would level the playing field and place Israel, AIPAC and, yes, J Street on notice. The extended honeymoon for these various Jewish establishments is over. Rhetorical posturing is out. It’s time to get serious.

Time to get serious about Egypt, too. Egypt’s military is now cleaning out any and all dissenters to its martial law overreach and its treatment of prisoners, including Westerners, is abominable.

On Syria, why isn’t the Russian-American alliance working to end the bloodshed rather than concentrating on the bogus issue of chemical weapons?

The list goes on and on.

Today, however, Netanyahu will up the rhetoric to hide the reality of Israeli expansion and its brutality against Palestinians. Since Netanyahu knows the international score the question is obvious: How does he and Israel get away with this subterfuge? How long can such deception last?