Former Clinton Official Robert Reich Attacks Netanyahu for Speech to Congress

Reuters
Reuters

As Clintonites and Obamaites unite to attempt to destroy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one more member has made his vitriolic feelings about the stalwart prime minister public.

Former U.S. labor secretary Robert Reich, who served under Bill Clinton, opined on Facebook that Netanyahu’s speech to Congress is triggering many American Jews to speak out against Israel, thus “poisoning the relationship” between Israel and the U.S.

Reich is only following the sentiments of his former boss, whose former campaign strategists, including pollster Stanley B. Greenberg and strategist James Carville, traveled to Israel in 1999 to help Ehud Barak defeat Netanyahu during Netanyahu’s first term in office. Ostensibly writing to Israelis, Reich posted viciously:

You should know that the new-found alliance between your prime minister and our Republican Party, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and some wealthy right-wing Jews here (such as billionaire Sheldon Adelson), is poisoning the relationship between Israel and the United States. Netanyahu’s decision to address Congress on Tuesday to argue against a nuclear deal with Iran that’s one of the president’s highest priorities, and also to speak to AIPAC – just two weeks before your own national elections – foists your own domestic politics onto ours.

Having shown exactly how partisan his attack is, Reich continued:

It is having a polarizing effect here in the United States, pushing many Americans to side against Israel, and thereby posing a long-term threat to Israel’s security. Meanwhile, many American Jews who have refrained from speaking out against the right-wing radicalism that has taken hold in Israel – a radicalism that rejects a ‘two-state solution’ and continues to build new settlements on the West Bank, and which we believe imperils the future of Israel — are now feeling emboldened to do so.

AIPAC has publicly supported Netanyahu’s speech, prompting Reich to attack them, too, pontificating, “AIPAC does not speak for us. House Republicans do not speak for us. Billionaires do not speak for us. We have been silent for too long.”

It is obvious that Reich would hurl insults at the man charged with protecting the Jewish state. Reich once wrote:

The great conflict of the 21st century will not be between the West and terrorism. Terrorism is a tactic, not a belief. The true battle will be between modern civilization and anti-modernists; between those who believe in the primacy of the individual and those who believe that human beings owe their allegiance and identity to a higher authority; between those who give priority to life in this world and those who believe that human life is mere preparation for an existence beyond life; between those who believe in science, reason, and logic and those who believe that truth is revealed through Scripture and religious dogma. Terrorism will disrupt and destroy lives. But terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.