Rep. Betty McCollum said earlier this month that she wouldn’t attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on March 3, and now she’s written an opinion piece about her decision for the Washington Post.
She calls the speech — orchestrated by House Speaker John Boehner and opposed by President Obama — a “campaign rally.”
She says: “In other words, the speaker of the House has provided the Israeli prime minister with a global platform to both attack our president and deliver a campaign message to voters at home.”
Netanyahu defended his speech, saying it is crucial because Congress is one of the only bodies that can actually stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
McCollum isn’t buying it, saying in the WaPo piece:
On March 17, Israelis will elect a new government. They need to base their vote on their own priorities. It is my hope that Israelis will see Netanyahu’s speech for what it is — a campaign rally. Such a speech should be held on Israeli soil, not on the floor of the U.S. House.
Israel’s real fear is not a nuclear Iran, but a smart Iran.
Israel is not afraid of Iran attacking it with a nuclear bomb, but it may be afraid of Iran surpassing it technologically. Could this be why it wants the U.S. to impose more economic sanctions to cripple and stifle Iran?
If Iran is smart it should quickly cut the nuclear deal the U.S. wants — and then go forward to actually become the technology powerhouse Israel really fears.
Israel is not worried
about Iran surpassing it technologically — that won’t happen in the foreseeable future.
The real issue is that there is a lot of difference between zero deliverable nuclear weapons and one weapon. Right now, Iran is very limited in the damage that it can do Israel compared to what Israel’s nuclear arsenal (possibly over a hundred nuclear weapons) can do to it.
All it takes is one nuclear warhead to take out Tel Aviv and effectively turn one way nuclear deterrence by Israel into mutual deterrence between Israel and Iran, turning the confrontation into a ground war in which Iran has the advantage.
It would end Israel’s military dominance of the Middle East.
“the foreseeable future”
according to some analysts is 6 months.