Exactly Why Is It that All American Presidents Dance to Bibi’s Tune?

Now by far Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, despite a record of naked corruption, incompetence, and a willingness to cave in to extremist demands in order to cling to power, Netanyahu has always demonstrated a unique sort of audacity when it comes to the United States. Before Trump, the post-1956 de facto rule between the two nations was that the U.S. could not prevent Israel from attacking whomever it wished whenever it wished. But neither could the Israelis issue orders to the U.S. about its own foreign policy. Under Reagan, for instance, Menachem Begin could not stop the U.S. sale of sophisticated AWAC planes to the Saudis, but neither did Israel care what the president thought of its brazen attack on Iraq’s nuclear facilities, its siege of Beirut, its aid to the guilty parties in the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, and, of course, its relentless expansion of settlements on the West Bank.

In a secretly recorded 2001 discussion with West Bank settlers, Netanyahu explained this commonly held view. “I know what America is,” he told them. “America is a thing that can be easily moved, moved in the right direction.… They will not bother us.”

Netanyahu has a long history now of trying to dictate not only Israel’s foreign policy but America’s. He tried this under Obama and failed. With remarkable brazenness, he secured an invitation from Republican leaders in Congress to address a rare joint session—he’s now made four such speeches, one more than his closest competitor, Winston Churchill—to try to undermine Obama’s plans to consummate what was called the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” or JCPOA, the deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for concessions related to Iran’s frozen bank accounts around the world.

But where he failed with Obama, he appears to be succeeding under Trump. Let’s remember first that a major, perhaps the major, reason the U.S. is facing the fait accompli of backing Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities is the fact that Trumpwithdrew the U.S. from the accord, thereby freeing Iran to pursue its original plans. He did so at the urging of Netanyahu, AIPAC, and other American Jewish and Christian Zionist organizations.