Spies like us
The latest poison-dipped arrow shot from Washington at Israel is a report that the Jewish state spied on President Obama’s Iranian nuclear negotiations and whispered intelligence to members of Congress. Soon after the U.S. and its partners began talks with Iran last year, the U.S. concluded that Israel was rooting out information. The source: America was eavesdropping on Israeli phone calls, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Where was the renowned Edward Snowden when the Jewish state needed him?
Plainly, Israeli leaders had a need to know about the shape of a deal that could directly endanger their country, not least because Obama had embarked secretly on the negotiations.
Spycraft and diplomacy are inseparable, even among allies. Recall the Wiki Leaks revelations that the U.S. had spied on France, as well as on Germany, up to and including its chancellor’s private conversations.
Yet the Obama administration chooses to present Israel’s snooping — and only Israel’s snooping — as an unconscionable affront. Dig a bit deeper and you start to understand why:
The White House insists information obtained about the deal was routed back to congressional opponents — and used to strengthen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s case against the terms Obama appears to be pursuing.
Israeli officials deny the allegation, claiming they received their information through other channels, including surveillance of Iran and cooperation from negotiation partners like France.
Still more, briefing Congress can hardly be described as passing information to a hostile power — except from the perspective of a President who faces congressional hostility, as this President does.
Obama’s tactics are especially hypocritical in that he is bending legal and constitutional pretzels to avoid calling a treaty a treaty — and therefore purportedly enabling a pact to escape necessary congressional approval.
A President who once missed no opportunity to complain about his predecessor’s disregard for Congress has reached new heights of high-handed absurdity.