Critics have suggested that Netanyahu is pushing the Obama administration to give Iran an ultimatum now out of fear that his leverage will disappear after Election Day. Others have suggested Netanyahu, whose relationship with Romney goes back to the Boston Consulting Group in 1970s, is trying to tip the scales for the Republican nominee. Netanyahu vigorously disputed such charges Sunday. He said he believes Obama and Romney are both committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and that support for Israel in the U.S. is bipartisan.
“I have no doubt that they’re equally committed to preventing that,” he said.
Despite Netanyahu’s assertions, Romney has made the complicated relationship between the United States and Israel a major issue in his campaign. Netanyahu distanced himself from the Republican nominee’s charges that Obama is not sufficiently pro-Israel.
“No, there you go again, David, you’re trying to draw me into something that is simply not the case, and it’s not my position,” Netanyahu said. “So there’s no bus. And we’re not going to get into that discussion, except to say one thing. We have a strong alliance, and we’re going to continue to have a strong alliance. I think the important question is where does the — the only bus that is really important is the Iranian nuclear bus. That’s the one that we have to derail. And that’s my interest, and that’s my only interest.”
Surely there’s some way this is exclusively good for Republicans, but watching Romney flail around on the international stage, Bibi had to be all, “oh fuck NO we do not need this guy, things are volatile enough.”
A.