SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress next week has led to much talk of a rift between the Israeli prime minister and the US president, and even between their two countries. Citing protocol of not meeting foreign leaders too close to an election, President Obama will shun his Israeli counterpart in Washington, and Vice President Joe Biden will stay away from the joint session of Congress when Netanyahu appears.
The dispute has taken on rancorous partisan tones with over two dozen Democratic lawmakers vowing to boycott the speech. They charge that Netanyahu’s goal is to undermine the president’s diplomacy with Iran, and that Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited the Israeli leader to defy and humiliate the White House. But what all this sound and fury misses is that for the Palestinians there is no meaningful Obama-Netanyahu rift. Indeed US-Israeli relations have never been stronger, nor more damaging to the prospects for peace and justice and for the very survival of the Palestinian people. Just look at the recent record. Last December, the Palestinian Authority put forward a tepid resolution in the UN Security Council that did little more than repeat long-standing US policy on the outlines of a two-state solution. Obama’s UN ambassador Samantha Power marshalled all her resources to defeat it.
It is clear that US will continue to protect Israel and its illegal occupation on Palestine. This rift is just matter of time and more precisely a family matter. US always protected Israel and furthered its agenda against the Muslims states.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
