Netanyahu's address to the US Congress

I am not an American. If I was, I would be questioning how the elected deputies of my Congress could allow a foreign leader - especially one who is contributing nothing to world peace - to come to my legislature and try to undermine the elected president of my country for trying to contribute to world peace. 

American democracy clearly allows this to happen. Whether it is a commendable thing that a foreigner can be given an opportunity to try and influence and divide another country in this way is another question though. 

There are important European countries currently contributing to Washington?s efforts to try to arrive at an understanding with Iran on the nuclear issue. Apart from many Americans, there must, therefore, also be many Europeans who are asking the same questions today. 

It does not take much imagination, of course, to realize the kind of age-old prejudices Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?s fiery anti-Iranian, and by implication anti-Obama, address to the U.S. Congress on Monday will have spurred. ?Does Israel control America?? is a question that will undoubtedly have come to many minds, together with the usual anti-Semitic accusations. 

Israel is not a much-loved country these days for the grossly disproportionate brutality it has visited on Palestinians in Gaza in the name of retaliation for terrorism. This allows for all kinds of negative sentiments against it to surface much more easily than they would otherwise. 

I am not an Israeli either but I can?t help wondering how sensible Israelis feel about all this. There is also a bitter irony in all of this for the Israelis; they have ended up in the same camp as Saudi Arabia, Iran?s bitter regional rival. 

Riyadh must be pleased about...