Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Netanyahu Punks Obama as Congress Grovels
04 Mar 2015
🖨️ Print Article

Netanyahu Punks Obama as Congress Grovels

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford

“Israel does not hesitate to use its veto power over the Americans.”
 

President Obama got punked in his own Capitol by the leader of a country that gets more U.S. money, weapons, technology and diplomatic support than any other nation in the world. How could that happen?

Benjamin Netanyahu is the prime minister of a country that has been an appendage of U.S. imperialism since the day it was founded, and could not exist were it not joined at the hip of the superpower. And that is Israel’s greatest strength, because when two bodies are joined at the hip, the smaller one can wreak havoc, and even poison the larger one’s vital organs. President Obama is always saying that the United States is the world’s indispensable nation, but Netanyahu has once again demonstrated that Israeli cooperation is indispensable to any U.S. president.

Both Israel and the United States tell essentially the same lies to the world: that they are morally superior nations, when in fact both states were born in the cauldrons of mass murder, racial expulsion and genocide. Israel and the U.S. have learned to sing a perfect harmony of lies; they are the closest of co-conspirators. Neither one can rat out the other – which gives the weaker party great power over the stronger one.

The United States and Israel have told the very same lies about Iran: that it supports terror and aggression in the region, when it is actually Israel and the U.S. that have terrorized Iran through covert and proxy wars since 1979, while Iran has attacked no one for centuries. And, of course, there is the world’s greatest lie of omission: Israel’s refusal to acknowledge that it is a nuclear power, and Washington’s half century of collaboration in that lie. Having for so long weaved a common web of lies with Israel, Washington cannot easily extricate itself from Its co-conspirator in Tel Aviv. Israel, for its part, does not hesitate to use its veto power over the Americans.

“Israel and the United States tell essentially the same lies to the world.”

So, when President Obama attempted to tone down America’s lies about Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions, so as to reach an advantageous deal for the United States, Netanyahu played his Republican card and screamed even bigger lies in front of a joint session of Congress – lies that Barack Obama cannot effectively rebut because Netanyahu’s lies about Iran are only slightly exaggerated versions of Washington’s lies about Iran. That’s why, after his emasculation on Capitol Hill, Obama had no choice but to pretend to agree with most of Netanyahu’s lying presentation. After all, Obama has told the same tall tales about non-existent Iranian nuclear weapons programs, and the real origins of the Islamic State. Obama’s in no position to contradict Netanyahu, who is determined to make it appear that the only path possible is everlasting war – which is Israel’s element.

The Americans are, of course, masters of fomenting war and chaos, but they do reserve the right, as a superpower, to call a truce when it suits them. Israel is telling Washington that it better get permission from Tel Aviv, or else Netanyahu will punk the U.S. president In his own house – especially if he’s Black.

For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com, and sign up for our weekly email notifications of new issues, each Wednesday.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com. Click here to download this audio commentary.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://traffic.libsyn.com/blackagendareport/20150304_gf_NetanyahuPunksObama.mp3

More Stories


  • Jon Jeter
    Unable to Squeeze Another Dime From Black People, a Subprime Economy Runs Aground
    26 Nov 2025
    America's financial overlords are hooked on a subprime lending model that preys on the poor, and now this unsustainable system is crashing down.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    Theme From the Bottom: Post COP 30 Reflections and the Case for a Global Bottom/Up Collective Intervention of Oppressed and Colonized People
    26 Nov 2025
    The path to climate liberation requires a radical break from failed leadership and a serious commitment to class analysis.
  • Clau O'Brien Moscoso
    The Lima Group and “Peaceful Transition”: the Neocolonial Role in US/Canadian Sanctions and Militarism Against Venezuelan Sovereignty
    26 Nov 2025
    While the U.S. justifies its new war on Venezuela as a counter-narcotics operation, the real target remains the Bolivarian Revolution and the alternative model of sovereignty it represents to the…
  • Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor
    On The Left Side of History: Political Prisoner Imam Jamil Al Amin
    26 Nov 2025
    Imam Jamil Al-Amin was a revolutionary targeted by the state from the 1960s until he was unjustly convicted of murder in 2002. He died on November 23, 2025, an elder political prisoner who had been…
  • Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    The End of American Thanksgivings: A Cause for Universal Rejoicing
    26 Nov 2025
    Glen Ford wrote many powerful essays, but his unflinching analysis of the history of the holiday we call Thanksgiving remains relevant over 20 years after it was published.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us