Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be fighting for his political life when he addresses the U.S. Congress in March.
Netanyahu’s already-controversial March 3 speech on Iran will come exactly two weeks before Israeli elections, in which the prime minister’s Likud party is running neck-and-neck with its rival, the Zionist Camp.
Likud had been struggling in the race, but polls have tightened amid clashes between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas based across the border in southern Lebanon.
Netanyahu received attention this week when he said Iran bore partial responsibility for a Hezbollah missile strike that killed two Israeli soldiers.
{mosads}While the skirmishes have stopped, the coinciding resurgence in Likud’s fortunes has raised the stakes for Netanyahu’s campaign strategy over the next month and a half.
The three-term prime minister already faces blistering criticism in the United States for his decision to address U.S. lawmakers in March without first alerting the White House.
The snub has ratcheted up already-high tensions between Netanyahu’s camp and the Obama administration, and has been called unprecedented by foreign policy experts who see Bibi’s plan to speak as a brazen political ploy ahead of his own election.
Netanyahu’s camp argues that communicating with President Obama was the responsibility of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who made the invitation, and that it is their duty to discuss the threat from Iran using the biggest platform possible.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, widely understood to have brokered the deal with Boehner and now at the center of the controversy, sought to lessen impressions that he had orchestrated an “end-run” around the White House.
“The prime minister has never intentionally treated the president disrespectfully — and if that is what some people felt, it certainly was not the prime minister’s intention,” Dermer said in an email Q&A with The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg, posted Friday.
The comments come amid searing attacks from veteran Israeli diplomats, some of whom have been accused of following their own political imperatives before the March 17 elections.
Former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren, who is running for the legislature as part of a new center-right party, called on his former boss to cancel the speech to Congress.
“The behavior over the last few days created the impression of a cynical political move, and it could hurt our attempts to act against Iran,” said Oren, who was part of Netanyahu’s government from 2009 to 2013, in an interview with Israeli website Ynet.
“It’s advisable to cancel the speech to Congress so as not to cause a rift with the American government. Much responsibility and reasoned political behavior are needed to guard interests in the White House.”
The controversy has created an opening for Netanyahu’s political opponents to criticize his leadership, an attack that compliments accusations of corruption against his government.
The latest mini-scandal erupted this week with claims that Netanyahu’s wife pocketed thousands of dollars in state funds by returning drink bottles from her official residence to supermarkets.
“Bottlegate,” as the Financial Times dubbed it, follows other controversies over Netanyahu’s use of public funds that his Labor opponents have eagerly highlighted.
The Zionist Camp, which combines the left-leaning Labor and Hatnuah parties, is fueled with energy generated by the record-breaking student protests that swept Israel in 2011, bringing housing and economic issues to the forefront of the political debate.
But Netanyahu’s team is hoping to keep the debate squarely in the arena of security and away from social issues, a strategy that helps explain his plan to speak to Congress on Iran.
The speech will give him the opportunity to portray himself as the consummate hawk before the Israeli public and to criticize Obama’s Iranian nuclear negotiations.
“As prime minister of Israel, I am obligated to make every effort to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weaponry that will be aimed at the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said last Sunday.
“This effort is global and I will go anywhere I am invited to make the State of Israel’s case and defend its future and existence.”
Despite vast interest within the American media, it is unclear how much the recriminations surrounding Netanyahu’s speech will influence the Israeli elections. The content of the speech itself — as well as any further border skirmishes — may be more likely to shape the outcome.
At the same time, the unique visual aspects of a congressional address could pose their own challenges for Netanyahu.
If Democrats remain irked at the Israeli leader, they could communicate their annoyance to Israeli audiences by refusing to give him the typical series of unanimous standing ovations.
“Turning Israel into a partisan issue has long been the greatest fear of pro-Israel advocates,” wrote Nathan Guttman in the Jewish Daily Forward on Wednesday.
“Events surrounding the GOP’s invitation to Netanyahu have raised concerns in the Jewish community that siding with Israel, and specifically adopting its view regarding the threat posed by a nuclear armed Iran, have now become a political football.”