The ferocious battle between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama over public opinion in their respective countries will reach one of its two climaxes today in an indirect duel: Netanyahu is due to address the AIPAC conference in a speech that will disclose "new information" about the agreement being formulated between Iran and the six powers, and shortly afterwards Obama will give an exclusive interview to Reuters in which he is expected to rebut one by one all the claims that Netanyahu raises at AIPAC.
The other climax will be Netanyahu's speech before Congress on Tuesday afternoon (Israel time), and it is not inconceivable that the White House will attempt to overshadow the Israeli operation on Capitol Hill as well with sounds and lights of some kind.
In the political clash between the two leaders, Obama has taken off the gloves, after Netanyahu did so last month when he decided to gamble on the Republican card in an unprecedented step in relations between the two countries. It appears that the White House is determined not to allow Netanyahu a free hand to shape public opinion in Israel or in the US. If the prime minister wants to use the microphone at AIPAC, and then in Congress, in an attempt to derail the negotiations with Iran, Obama's microphone will always be much louder. With all due respect to the prime minister of Israel, the world will pay more attention to the president of the US.
Like a good salesman, Netanyahu has been trying to build expectations of both speeches. In a briefing for reporters on the plane, an unnamed "senior Israeli official" said, "Congress does not necessarily know all the details of the agreement that is now being put together, details that in our view do not represent a good agreement." In other words, in the next two days I shall reveal to the world secret details of the negotiations with Iran, information so secret that even American legislators are unaware of it. Does Netanyahu really have such high quality goods to sell his two audiences? Have Mossad agents planted listening devices in the negotiation rooms in Geneva? In a few hours, we'll know.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 2, 2015
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