++This morning's read is Josh Marshall's piece on Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress. Josh takes off on how this is orchestrated like other Bibi's appearances as a campaign event. In his last campaign,he used his Washington stop in the commercial "Bibi talks, the world listens." This time the scuttlebutt is that he will match Churchill's three times experience. But as Josh notes, Churchill spoke twice during World War II, our largest, most significant war as our key ally.
++Marshall says that Bibi's appearance is a throwback that previous Israeli leaders said were no longer necessary because Israel has to act and perceived as independent and a sovereign state that conducts its foreign policy through its foreign minister and ambassador. Josh thinks the whole things is very unhealthy for Israel looking so dependent on the United States.
++Josh mentions one appearance by Bibi, then a disgraced foreign minister, before the House committee where he asserted that Saddam Hussein definitely had weapons of mass destruction. This was at a time that Israel said they would no longer hold back if Iraq sent Scud missiles at Israel. The United States had to restrain Israel during the Gulf War because Saddam was trying to sucker them into it in order to inflame Arab reactions.
++Marshall repeats the current joke going around that Bibi should just talk to a Senate committee because he is one.
++I think there is another concern. Israel by blocking anything the United States has proposed on the Palestinian situation has effectively negated our role to be an "honest broker" in that struggle. To then amp up your criticism of a negotiation process on Iran is to seriously weaken our role to engage,let alone lead, in any multilateral process. This is perversely the idea of the Republicans who remain committed to unilateral actions in a very changed world.
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