The American Constitution stipulates that the government
must be made of three branches. One would be an executive branch headed by the
president; another would be a legislative branch that is made of two chambers, each
headed by an assortment of leaders, whips and chairs of committees. This is a
system of governance that is different from say, the Israeli system where the
presidency is basically a ceremonial position, and where the executive powers
are vested in the prime minister.
For nearly 200 years, the Americans prided themselves for
the fact that their constitution served them well. Talk to them, and they will
tell you that the framers so designed the constitution that no tyrant can rise
among them and rule the way that the British king used to rule before they
revolted and fought to gain their independence. As it turned out, however, the
design that performed well when it came to staving off the menace it was
designed to stop, proved inadequate when it came to protecting the nation from
another kind of menace.
In fact, the American system has been so transformed under
the nose of the constitution that we have now a two layered system of
government. There is the presidential layer which continues to function as
intended by the framers. And there is the prime ministerial layer that will
suspend the presidential layer and supersede it when necessary. It will do so
to put the prime minister of Israel
in charge of the American congress by placing him firmly at the helm of the
American ship of state.
You can see how this works in two articles that have
appeared on the same day, November 8, 2013 in the same publication, National
Review Online. The first has the title: “Obama Turns on Israel ” and the
subtitle: “The President's anti-Zionism is finally rearing its head.” It was
written by Daniel Pipes. As to the second article, it was written by Elliott
Abrams under the title: “How Bad a Deal Is It? Ask Bibi.” That being the
current Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu.
Using real and imaginary scenes in which he paraphrases the
various characters, Daniel Pipes has Benjamin Netanyahu reprimand the American
President, Barack Obama basically for being a bad boy. This is how he put it:
“If I might paraphrase the U.S.
position...” which resulted in this: “Israeli responses have been stark and
blunt. Netanyahu blasted the Iran
deal as a mistake, and warned Kerry: the deal is a bad deal. It's a very bad
deal.”
Placing another Israeli official in the same scene, Daniel
Pipes has Naftali Bennett, who is the minister of the economy and commerce;
tell of the consequences that will flow from the American President behaving
like a bad boy. He warns of “an Iranian bomb destroying New Your City.”
But what are you going to do Danny boy? And you Bibi the
Netanyahu, and you the Naftali of commerce? What are you going to do now? Good
question and here is their collective answer: for one thing, you can rest
assured that we have the power to make America
outsource its security to us because “we will never outsource our security” to America . Upon
that, Daniel Pipes defers to Elliott Abrams who will give the specifics of what
the Jews will do. But he has a parting shot to deliver before disappearing. For
this, he places the Israeli defense minister at the scene, and have him say in
a defiant tone: “We will have to be smart, and not fear threats of whether
there will or will not be a third intifada.”
Now Elliot Abrams, the baker of smelly pies, appears on the
scene and tells it the way he smells it. He speaks of the “anger on the face of
Israeli prime minister Netanyahu who pulled no punches, calling the deal a very
bad deal” as if to reiterate that Barack Obama has been a bad boy. But he wants
the readers to know that he is not the only one smelling things for, “the wily
Iranian negotiators smelled this instantly, and struck.” It sounds like he is
trying to tell us the Iranians smelled his pies and kicked his ass, but we'll
never know.
In any case, he finally gets to ask the question we have
been waiting for: “What now?” And he gives the answer: “Congress should pass
additional sanctions … And both houses should now schedule hearings over this
bad deal, and demand to know why this … and why that.” And he has his own
parting shot: “Let's be clear: A lot of damage has been done. We need only
watch the video of Netanyahu's press conference to see what Obama has wrought.”