re: #250 lawhawk

The outrageous outrage is itself outrageous.

Seriously, everyone spies, but why is the US Congress relying on leaks from the Mossad about what the US is doing? That they’re doing an end-run around the US diplomats at the State Department and the WH to find out what is going on in the P5+1 talks is the real problem here, not that the Mossad was spying on the talks, or that the CIA knew that the Mossad was spying.

Everyone spies. Even on allies. It’s what everyone does with that knowledge that is important.

Netanyahu saw fit to give that Mossad intel to the GOPers in Congress to further his own agenda of derailing the talks, even though it would likely spur Iran to hasten its nuclear ambitions (though any faster and Iran might have nukes in another 20 years based on Netanyahu’s track record of predicting Iranian nuclear capabilities).

The GOP keeps thinking that the WH is the one engaging in spiteful actions, when it was the GOP that launched this entire episode by unilaterally inviting Netanyahu without consulting the WH and the GOP sought to derail the talks by any means necessary, when they have had little understanding of what the talks would entail, let alone what they might achieve, or that they have proposed no alternatives other than tightening sanctions (which are already in effect) and the drumbeat of war (though no one knows where all the nuke sites are, whether anyone could hit all the targets, and it would be a far more difficult task than either of Israel’s nuclear raids against Osirak or the Syrian facility in 2007).

As usual, you articulate this better than I could, thanks. I don’t mind the spying. I expect it. But what bothers me is they went to the Congress knowing full well how hostile that Congress is to anything Obama does. And did Bibi think they wouldn’t get caught? What the guy is doing is undermining US-Israeli relations for the sake of his own power and his buddy-buddy relationship with US conservatives.