McClatchy reports that
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing growing criticism in Israel for a planned speech to the U.S. Congress about Iran....
In Israel, critics have characterized Netanyahu’s trip as an election ploy and a slap in the face of the Obama administration after it’s worked hard to deflect challenges to Israel at the United Nations and most recently at the International Criminal Court.
The criticisms are biting, ranging from Netanyahu's scheming is "dangerous, it’s toxic and it’s not so funny anymore" to "The American political system can't stand [Netanyahu's 'brutish'] behavior" to the charge that the prime minister is "destroying our strategic relations with the United States for an election speech."
As I see it, all of this fallout comes from Netanyahu's close association with a gang that really, really can't shoot straight. Remember that just a couple months ago the GOP had won it all, it had grabbed the reins of power and it would ride roughshod over a vanquished president. It would set the agenda; it would force Obama's hand; it would protest, rage, on occasion maybe develop an actual policy and then ascend even farther as it cleared a path for the next Republican president. Such was the narrative. And then … then … then the majority GOP went into battle, and they've been blasting themselves in their floppy, oversized clown feet ever since.
It's what they do. They always overreach. Give them a toy or two and they want them all, including the shiniest of all — the framing of foreign policy. Clever chaps, aren't they? They took a simple speech invitation — for which diplomatic protocol was clear — and out of excessive cleverness, they fucked it up. Again, it's what they do. Netanyahu's fuckup was in not realizing that Republicans fuck up everything they touch.