Netanyahu tramples quest for ME peace

The invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of the US Congress by Republican Speaker John Boehner without the concurrence of the White House made the situation tense in both America and Israel as well. Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the Congress on Tuesday (March 03). As many as 60 Democrat members did not attend the joint session.  
The Israeli Prime Minister practically repeated in his speech his old rhetoric against Iran's nuclear programme. Denouncing President Obama's initiative to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran, Netanyahu told the audience that 'no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal. It is very bad deal. We are better off without it.' Netanyahu said the leadership in Iran should not to be trusted because they are radical as ever and the world powers would not block Iran's way to bomb but pave its way to a bomb.
 The Israeli Prime Minister did not believe that alternative to this bad deal was war as has been stated by National Security Advisor Susan Rice at the gathering of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a strong lobby group of Israel in America, in Washington DC on March 02. Netanyahu also addressed it after Susan Rice.
The Israeli Prime Minister while addressing the AIPAC and the joint session of the Congress stressed that he "does not intend to be divisive or disrespectful to President Barack Obama." He said he would always be grateful to Obama for his support of Israel.
A strong supporter of state of Israel, Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House, who is now Minority leader in the House of Representatives, in a statement lashed out at Netanyahu's speech. Nancy Pelosi said, "I was near tears throughout the Prime Minister's speech -- saddened by the insults to the intelligence of the United States as part of the P5 + 1 nations, and saddened by the condescension towards our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation."
Obama did not receive Netanyahu as was declared earlier. In his reaction to the speech, he told reporters that Netanyahu did not offer any alternative proposal. He, however, said Iran must commit itself to verifiable freeze of at least 10 years on sensitive nuclear activities. But the odds are still against sealing a final agreement.  
When Netanyahu was addressing the joint session of the Congress, negotiators of the United States and four other permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany were preparing for further talks with Iran in Switzerland.
In the recent past, there has been a growing debate in the US that its foreign policy is dictated by the Jewish lobby and Israeli administration as well. Many in the US refuse to admit this hard reality. But there are exceptions. John Mearsheimer, Professor of Chicago University and Professor Stephan M.Walt, Dean in John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University observed in a paper in 2006:  "No lobby has managed to divert the US foreign policy far from what the American national interest would otherwise suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that the US and the Israeli interests are essentially the same."  They said the US has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely allied with Israel, not the other way round.
President Obama has the intention to break this vicious circle, but has not apparently succeeded so far.  
The writer is a retired
diplomat from Bangladesh. amjad.21@gmail.com