Dem Rep Yarmuth: Netanyahu Was ‘Condescending,’ Compares Him to Child

Representative John Yarmuth (D-KY) compared Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to a child, after complaining of the “condescending tone” of the PM’s speech on Tuesday.

“First, I would like to congratulate Speaker Boehner and Prime Minister Netanyahu on a very impressive bit of political theater. Now, the prime minister can go home to his campaign and say he lectured Congress and the American people on things that apparently we didn’t know. I think the speech validated all of the reasons I said I was opposed to the speech” he stated.

Yarmuth continued, “I resented the condescending tone that he used, which basically indicated that he didn’t think anybody in Congress or the country understood the threat that a nuclear weaponized Iran poses to his country, to the region, and to the world. I think the president has made it very clear we understand that threat. I don’t think that there’s any doubt that everyone in Congress and the administration understands that Iran has been a bad actor in the region, that it has sponsored terrorism, that it has done things that we would like to see changed. We all know that.”

He later did concede that “Israel perceives its threat differently than we might,” but not before declaring “this speech was straight out of the Dick Cheney playbook. This was fear-mongering at its ultimate.”

Yarmuth concluded that Netanyahu was “like the child who says ‘I want to go to Disneyland every day, eat ice cream and drink Coca-Cola every day, and not go to school. That would be a nice life for a child, but this is very serious business and it is in a — it is conducted in a very, very real world. ‘Idealism is fine,’ as William F. Buckley once said, ‘but as it approaches reality, the costs become prohibitive.’ And I believe that insisting on the ideal deal, again, in a world where things constantly change, and realities change, is something that — for which the cost would be prohibitive and those costs would be a lost opportunity to put an end to Iran’s nuclear program.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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