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Paul Elisha: Netanyahu And Congress

Probably nothing has roiled the hoped-for response to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s unprecedented address to the joint houses of The U.S. Congress, like the arrival on-scene and subsequent pained demeanor, of Nobel Peace-Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.  The coincidental arrival of an unanticipated Spring snow storm also provided excuses for the large number of members in both houses, who shunned the Prime Minister’s highly controversial speech, arranged by House Speaker Boehner, without any previous notice to President Obama; a glaring and intentional insult.

An acclaimed Nobel-Prize recipient Wiesel, one of Israel’s most esteemed individuals, recently departed for the United States, where he quietly took up residence and was granted U.S. citizenship.  This move is reported to have resulted from his extreme dismay at Israel’s refusal to approve the publication of details about Turkish involvement in the Armenian ‘Genocide’ of the early Twentieth Century.  It is Wiesel’s strong belief that the slogan: “Never Again!” applies not just to Jews but to all Holocaust victims.  It’s said his dismay was evoked by Israel’s apparent reluctance to incur Turkish displeasure.

The outcome… an obvious rebuke, from the pained expression on the eloquent Nobel winner’s vexed visage, throughout much of the Prime Minister’s hectoring address.  Also even more tragic, the obviously frayed foundation of a singularly admirable alliance, with the U.S., that since its inception has withstood any number of more harmful dangers, for more than six decades.  One can only hope that not only Mr. Netanyahu but ‘Lord Willing,’ the successor he so desperately sought to short-circuit, will find the means not only to mend but heal this accursed worst fracture.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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