Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League tells Bibi he needs to cancel the the speech.
As JFK said when the Wall Street Journal went after Nixon, “That’s like L’Osservatore Romano criticizing the Pope.”
Foxman’s ADL doesn’t lean nearly as Republican as most of the “official” Jewish organizations in the U.S., but if there was any previous occasion when you could see daylight between ADL’s position and the official Israeli government position, I must have missed it. This gives any Jewish Democrat in Congress who wants to stay home nearly perfect cover.
Now the question for Obama is whether to help Bibi climb down reasonably gracefully, or instead to leave him twisting slowly, slowly in the wind. I’d be inclined to let him twist, but of course the President is a far nicer guy than I ever thought about being.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
Which course by Obama would be more damaging to Netanyahu in his upcoming election?
It is tempting to leave Bibi twisting in the wind, but the risk is that you end up with a new Prime Minister who is even crazier. Reasonable minds can differ as to whether it's in our interest to take that risk.