I guess we are lucky

Commentary By Ron Beasley

We had a bat shit crazy VP in charge of the country for at least six years.  Can you imagine how bad it could have been in Israel had a bat shit crazy Prime Minister at the same time.

Netanyahu appears to be suffering from confusion and paranoia. He is convinced that the media are after him, that his aides are leaking information against him and that the American administration wants him out of office. Two months after his visit to Washington, he is still finding it difficult to communication normally with the White House. To appreciate the depth of his paranoia, it is enough to hear how he refers to Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod, Obama's senior aides: as "self-hating Jews."

"He thought that his speech at Bar-Ilan would become mandatory reading at schools in the United States, and when he realized that Obama gave no such order, he went back to being frustrated," one of his associates said.

At a recent meeting with with Netanyahu, ostensibly about the understandings with the U.S. on the settlements, former prime minister Ehud Olmert was shocked to see the prime minister focusing mainly on the media. "Is this what he called me in for?" a source close to Olmert quoted him as saying.

Behind closed doors, Netanyahu's coalition partners - including Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman - have also expressed shock at his behavior. One senior minister told an aide that he is finding it very difficult to work with the premier. "He drives us mad," the minister said. "Every minute things change, and I am constantly busy doing maintenance on Netanyahu."

Of course Netanyahu's paranoia may be justified.  He finally gets back into power but it appears he can't get along with the US President.  He knows history and he knows that Prime Ministers who can't get along with the US don't last long.  And this brings us to a quote of the day from Spencer Ackerman:

Something like three-quarters of American Jewish voters in November cast their ballots for Obama. Are we self-hating Jews too, asshole? What would your explanation be for how so many of us are in the throes of a false consciousness? Seeing major American Jewish "leaders" push this kind of ethnic-anxiety bullshit is disgraceful enough. Watching the Prime Minister of Israel do it is an order of magnitude beyond. Bibi, we're not self-hating; we just hate you.