Go Home, Netanyahu

As a proponent of free and open information, I was initially reluctant to call for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to Israel. Despite my dislike of Netanyahu and Israeli foreign policy generally, his scheduled Congressional address, on its face, does little more than add an additional perspective to America’s foreign policy debate. More debate and discussion is usually welcome, because too often American foreign policy is conducted behind closed doors with the dubious claims of politicians going unchecked. Only after war is underway do tidbits begin to leak to the public about the intelligence which supposedly made war necessary. If Iran is in Barack Obama’s or Congress’s crosshairs, one part of me says: Let Netanyahu’s puppetmastery be a matter of public record.

With that said, Americans already know what Netanyahu’s U.S. tour is about: more war. And that is why they largely oppose it. Americans don’t need Netanyahu in Washington to explain his position – they’re already well aware. A fair number in Congress toe the Israeli line, adopting Netanyahu’s murderous ideology wholesale. It is an ideology that sees diplomacy as a last resort, and has a loud voice in Congress thanks to the efforts of AIPAC – the Israeli propaganda machine operating in Washington. One need only look at their work to learn what Israeli warmongers want.

So while more discussion and new information are normally welcomed, Netanyahu’s antics give us neither. His Congressional hosts will use his address to bolster their calls for the continued American war state, one which is waged as much by the Israeli state as the American one. Yes, Israeli foreign policy is regarded throughout the rest of the world as an extension of American foreign policy, and rightfully so. Stolen taxpayer loot funds Israel to the tune of several billion dollars per year. For a small country, Israel is not only armed to the teeth, but is also able to simultaneously lock down an entire Palestinian population. This is what American foreign aid, paid for by you, spent by Washington, achieves.

The growing disconnect between the US government’s staunch support of Israel and the American public’s disagreement with that support is best explained by Lysander Spooner’s No Treason No. 6, in which Spooner said of Congress:

"[T]hey are neither our servants, agents, attorneys, nor representatives…we do not make ourselves responsible for their acts. If a man is my servant, agent, or attorney, I make myself responsible for all his acts done within the limits of the power I have entrusted to him [and] make myself responsible to those other persons for any injuries he may do them, so long as he acts within the limits of the power I have granted him. But no individual who may be injured in his person or property, by acts of Congress, can come to the individual electors, and hold them responsible for these acts of their so-called agents or representatives. This fact proves that these pretended agents of the people, of everybody, are really the agents of nobody."

As Spooner makes clear, neither the US government nor the Israeli government represents you. They are classes unto themselves, separate entities on their own quest for financial and political power. With this in mind, I’m all the more eager to see Netanyahu get back on the Israeli war plane American taxpayers no doubt bought for him, and return home.

In the age of free flowing information via the Internet, Netanyahu should feel confident making his war appeal within the confines of Israel. A man who fences in his neighbors and condemns them to grinding poverty and death does not deserve an invitation from any land which values freedom. Besides, Americans already have enough fear of foreigners stoked by their own politicians. The last thing we need is another head of state joining the chorus.

Chad Nelson is an assistant editor for Antiwar.com. Follow him on Twitter.