Israel Matzav

Time's Joe Klein rips Netanyahu and Rivlin

Time Magazine's Joe Klein stopped by Morning Joe on Wednesday to express his 'disgust' with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Rivlin, accusing them of trying 'brazenly' of trying to push the United States into war with Iran and to influence the outcome of the US elections.

Let's go to the videotape.

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There's a partial transcript of Klein's remarks here (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

I don't believe Netanyahu is trying to influence the American election and I don't think he could even if he wanted to. In fact, if Israel attacks Iran before the election and the United States is drawn in or backs us up, I believe that it will only help Obama's reelection bid.

So what's Bibi up to? I believe that Bibi (a) is repeating Menachem Begin's 1981 behavior in the lead up to the Iraq attack. Begin warned everyone over and over again that the sky was falling so that no one could say after he attacked Iraq that they weren't warned, (b) genuinely believes that his one and only shot at attacking Iran is before the US elections, because (x) he genuinely does not trust Obama to protect us or to back an Israeli strike before it is too late if Obama is reelected (and with good reason) and (y) he genuinely believes that Fordow will be finished in the next 3-6 months and Israel will no longer have the means to attack it.

And if Bibi's actions happen to throw the election into Romney's hands? Well, turnabout is fair play. Beginning with George Bush senior's blatant backing of Yitzchak Rabin against Yitzchak Shamir in 1992, our allies, especially the United States, have felt free to interfere in our elections in a manner that does not happen in any other country in the world. In 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu - who grew up in the United States and who was widely regarded as having very little chance of winning an election against Shimon Peres six months after Yitzchak Rabin's assassination - hired Arthur Finkelstein to work for him and won. Three years later, Bill Clinton dispatched James Carville to help Ehud Barak defeat Netanyahu. And so it has continued.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Campaign 2012, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, mainstream media, radical Left

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:45 PM