Lapid tells JPost: Iran deal would be better without Netanyahu's speech to Congress (delusional)

Jerusalem Post ^ | 02/18/2015 15:12 | NIV ELIS

[Dave346]

Israel would be in a better position to improve an impending nuclear deal between Iran and the West if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not harmed relations with the US, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

"We think that there are too many centrifuges still there, and this is not harsh enough or strong enough toward the Iranians," Lapid said in an interview for the JPost Election Arena. "If things were as they used to be in the relationship between Israel and the United States, we would be able to makes some impact and change this deal for the better of Israel."

Ties between the Prime Minister and US President Barack Obama, which have never been fully amicable, hit a new nadir when Netanyahu accepted an invitation from Republican House Speaker John Boeher to address a joint session of Congress on the Iran issue. The White House was not consulted prior to the invitation, and the speech has been seen as a move to undermine ongoing negotiations.

Lapid would not explicitly comment on whether or not he thought the brewing deal was good or bad, saying there was no longer sufficient information sharing as a result of the speech.

Asked how Israel should handle the deal, Lapid said, "You should do it quietly, not poking the United States President in the chest." Because of the speech, a planned Iran sanctions bill sponsored by Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) lost bipartisan support. The administration had warned that passage of such a bill would collapse negotiations altogether.

Yet Lapid threw his support behind the now-defunct sanctions bill, saying that it was "everything we hoped for" because it put "extra sanctions on Iran in the right moment.”

[katwoman5779]

Actually, Israel would be in a better position if we didn’t have anti-Semites in the White House. There, I said it and I mean it and I am not going to take it back.

[Travis McGee]

[rjsimmon]

...if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not harmed relations with the US.

It wasn't Bibi who did that...

[Catsrus]

Some people are so twisted in their thinking. Why should we care whether or not Iran is better off? I feel for their people, but not that government. They used to be an ally - but, that changed, thanks to Jimmah Carter, the Peanut President.

[Thank You Rush]

“”It wasn’t Bibi who did that... “”

The guy has it backward all right... Is there no shortage of buffoons in this world today? obozo is definitely the wrong one in that relationship. What other country’s leader comes to our country and ends up being insulted? IIRC didn’t obozo go to Israel and was he insulted by Bibi while there? Oh! If only we could make a swap!!!

[Bluestocking]

Bibi Netanyahu was also prime minister during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and never was our relationship with Israel anything but highly cordial during those times.

The current deterioration is U.S.-Israel relations has been caused solely by Barack Obama. In fact, the support for Israel by the American people is as strong as ever, which will be demonstrated when Bibi makes his speech to Congress.

[Dave346]

Actually only during Clinton (not Bush).

Bibi has been unlucky enough to serve as PM for almost 9 years now all during Democratic terms.

[jjotto]

http://www.cnn.com/US/9905/17/us.israel.reax/index.html

...Clinton was publicly neutral in the weeks leading up to the Israeli elections, but it’s no secret that he didn’t get along well with Netanyahu...

...Three years ago, the president’s public support for Labor’s Shimon Peres backfired and helped nudge Netanyahu to victory...

[Zenjitsuman]

In Israel this Lapid is thought to be as bright as a stump.