Republicans to Obama: Get over Netanyahu, stop Iran and Islamic State
Republicans have a message for President Obama: Benjamin Netanyahu is not the problem. The Islamic State and Iran are.
Several top Republicans voiced that criticism of Obama’s Middle East policy Sunday, following a week of acrimony between the White House and Netanyahu and terrorism in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Republicans dismissed Obama’s concerns over Netanyahu’s promise to oppose Palestinian statehood in the current environment as nothing more than campaign-trail theater.
“The least of your problems is what Bibi Netanyahu said during an election campaign,” Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain told Obama in an appearance on CNN.
“If every politician were held to everything they say in a political campaign, obviously, that would be a topic of long discussion,” McCain said, going on to state that Obama’s priorities “are so screwed up it’s unbelievable.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said on the same program that it’s “always surprising to me when the president is upset about election rhetoric, because it always happens.”
Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq, instead focused attention on Iraq, where he said the “real enemy” was Iran through the sponsorship of Shiite militias.
While the White House is trying to make the controversy about Netanyahu, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on CBS, it’s “not about him. It’s not about the administration. This is about the mutual concern we have for Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
McCarthy said that Obama’s poor track record in predicting the demise of al Qadea and underestimating the Islamic State lowered Republicans’ faith in his ability to negotiate with Iran. “Now he wants to trust us on getting a deal with Iran not able to attain a nuclear weapon?” he asked. “I believe the administration has misinterpreted the entire Arab spring.”
“Everybody needs to just take a deep breath and step back,” said Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat who describes himself as a “hawk” when it comes to backing Israel. “It does Israel no service, and it does the United States no service, to make it a partisan football.”
Doubts about the president’s negotiating strategy with Iran were a staple of Republican comments Sunday.
“There’s a concern that the administration cares more about making a deal versus the right deal,” said Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
But Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, issued a broader criticism of Obama’s Middle East policy.
“It’s a matter of leadership and policy. I think we’re not letting the military do their job here,” McCaul said of Obama’s approach to combating the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria, Northern Africa, and other parts of the Middle East.
“It’s a policy of containment, not a policy to degrade and destroy and defeat ISIS in the region,” McCaul said, using another name for the Islamic State.
McCaul cited the suicide bombings in Yemen claimed by the Islamic State as a reason to fear for the safety of the U.S. He noted that the Islamic State was recruiting Western fighters successfully through the Internet, including in the U.S.
A Democrat, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, also raised questions about the strategy to counter the Islamic State. “What is the overall strategy to defeat this threat?” Gabbard, an Iraq veteran, asked Sunday morning.
Gabbard said that there was no plan in place for stable Sunni control of Sunni-majority areas threatened by Shiite militias aligned with Iran, leading to the growth of Islamic State power. “We’re not getting to the heart of the problem here,” she warned.
