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Netanyahu's Visit to Congress: Time to Ban Foreign Lobbies?

By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security

In an affront to the White House, House Speaker John Boehner, has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress. While foreign leaders have addressed Congress in the past as testimonial or ceremonial, what makes this invitation different, is that Boehner is hoping that Netanyahu will be instrumental in convincing American policy makers of raising more sanctions against Iran and possibly considering other measures.

It is illegal for foreign powers to try to influence policy makers and the American decision making process. Yet in reality, this is exactly what happens through a host of private, public and covert methods that are aimed at manipulating the U.S. national interest and stealing the power of the American people by bypassing the legal channels of citizenship, elections, solicitation and visitation.

Boehner also broke precedence in not informing the administration or the opposition of his latest correspondence and request of the Israeli Prime Minister. President Obama said that he would not meet with Netanyahu while the latter was in visiting, according to The New York Times.

The U.S. Constitution clearly mandates that the responsibilities for conducting and setting American foreign policy reside solely with the president of the United States and not the Congress. In this case, the Speaker is out of line; he’s engaging in a turf war to influence foreign policy just as the president is engaged in a turf war by refusing to execute law passed by the Congress on immigration. In any case, and in spite of two American branches of government at war for greater power shares of governance, it is not lawful.Netanyahu Israel and Boehner

Not only is this invitation and intent to allow a head of state to bypass presidential policy and influence U.S. policy makers unconstitutional, but it is also a breach of various federal laws.

Even Netanyahu’s own people are against taking an Israeli national interest issue so brazenly to the U.S. Congress. Two of them happen to be Michael B. Oren, his former Ambassador to the U.S., and former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin. The two are highly nationalist and come from opposite ends of the Israeli political spectrum. Both are also running for office. The overall issue of the visit is important because Netanyahu is also up for elections.

Mr. Oren said Netanyahu’s trip should be canceled and Mr. Yadlin said that the visit to the U.S. was “irresponsible,’ according to The New York Times.

However, the bigger threat that even astute Israeli figures notice, is that Israeli and American national interests should be intertwined through congressional-to-parliamentary exchanges, rather than between official channels and heads of states. Even the Israelis want to handle the American political rivalry with delicacy. Yehuda Ben Meir, of the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, claims that Israelis are most concerned with losing American support and sees that, along with a nuclear-armed Iran, as the two “most serious threats.” So it is understandable that officials and the general population in Israel would be both cautious and skeptic about Netanyahu’s acceptance to Boehner’s summons. The intertwining of elections and parliaments does not resonate well with American or Israeli nationalists.

The unofficial Israeli lobby is already tremendously large and efficient but the effectiveness within the U.S. is actually dying down due to a number of natural political factors: 1) Israeli and U.S. interests are increasingly divergent as their own security and survival are no longer intertwined. 2) Israel is pulling away from the U.S. while trying to secure funding, weapons and commitment—and at the same time going east toward China. 3) U.S. two-state solutions are opposite and irreconcilable to the present Netanyahu government of Israel. 4) The U.S. remains one of Israel’s main targets for espionage along with France and China.

Much of Israel’s lobby comes from American Jewish and pro-Israel citizens, so it largely already bypasses the Foreign Agent Registration Act as well as campaign finance by wealthy pro-Israeli Americans and American corporations—but not all of it. Massive espionage campaigns, ideological priming and foothold implants pursue non-American first, pro-Israeli, interests have gone so far as to seem like a conspiracy fiction novel.

These noted concerns have everything to do with maintaining the respective nationalism and sovereign integrity of both states, America and Israel, and the promotion of such sovereignty by free, fair and democratically elected leadership within each respective state. Each state must be politically independent from outside interference in the governance of their state if they are to maintain healthy relations in the future, as well as conduct foreign policy legally and without the manipulation or influence of the other. This is not the case right now.

In coordination with espionage activity, close ‘allies’ like Israel actually endanger the U.S. national security and interests through foreign state lobbies that procure funding and arms and this latest move of power diplomacy through Congress (bypassing the president). In 2012, America almost went to war with Iran for no good reason because of the Netanyahu government. It would have taken the U.S.-Israeli covert war with Iran to a whole new level. The massive Israeli-inspired course guiding U.S. action would have cost American lives, billions of dollars and left Americans less secure and the region (and the future of Iran) in even greater peril than the present.

Everyone is afraid of offending Israel for some reason. Considering how much money and aid we have given them, they should be worried about offending us. If anything, they should politely do as we ask, or else what are all those billions of dollars doing? While they may be keeping Israel alive, Israel has also done well to be extremely forward-thinking in advanced technology, weaponry and productive in industry. It is arguable how much they need American support versus how much they want it. But for the U.S. national interest, which is the priority beyond any other calculation, what is America getting, not just with Israel, but Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, etc.? Pouring water in the sandy desert is not a good practice.

In the meantime, Iran and Israel attempt to force a greater commitment from the U.S. regarding its particular cause and interest. America must understand these causes and interests, remain superior to them all, and dictate the course of its own actions as well as the actions of the other weaker players on the field. The U.S. must remember that all actions are political but not all actions are politically influential. If America was as effective as Israel in formatting U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, we might have seen a very different outcome over there.

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