What, Really, is Netanyahu's Game Plan for America?

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My headline question was provoked by Netanyahu's response to the P5+1 agreement with Iran which he called "an historic mistake" and an editorial in The New York Times described as being "clearly in the best interests of the US and the other nations that drafted it and Israel." (My emphasis added).

The NYT's editorial view was subsequently endorsed in a letter signed by more than 100 former US ambassadors and then a statement signed by 60 former senior officials and lawmakers with extensive national security experience. Then came the UN Security Council's unanimous adoption of a resolution endorsing the nuclear deal with Iran and paving the way for the lifting of sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

On the battle to come the headline over a story in The Times of Israel put it this way. AIPAC girds for rare high-noon showdown with White House.

The first question arising is this. Does Netanyahu really believe that with AIPAC's assistance he can mobilize Zionism's election campaign funders and those in Congress who do their bidding to kill the deal?

Unless he is completely out of touch with the way things are moving in Washington D.C, Netanyahu must know there is no chance of Congress coming up with the two-thirds majority necessary to over-ride an Obama veto of legislation to kill the deal.

So what, really, is Netanyahu's game plan for America?

The only answer I can think of is that he is reconciled to the fact that a growing number of Democrats in Congress are no longer prepared to do the Zionist state's bidding when doing it is clearly not in America's own best interests. Even Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner for the 2016 race to the White House, felt that gave her the freedom to endorse the deal with Iran. She said, "With vigorous enforcement, unyielding verification and swift consequences for any violations, this agreement can make the United States, Israel and our Arab partners safer."

In that light it seems to me Netanyahu's game plan is to say and do whatever he thinks will assist the Republicans to rubbish President Obama and win the White House in 2016, in the hope that a Republican president will kill the deal.

If that is the hope in Netanyahu's deluded mind it is no doubt being encouraged by the statements of all the Republicans who are offering themselves as presidential candidates.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has said, for example, that it will be "up to Obama's successor to overturn the deal." He added that if he is the next occupant of the Oval Office, he will re-impose sanctions on Iran.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said "Iran is now empowered to annihilate Israel."

Former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida is also in the leading Republican pack which asserts that Iran does want to possess nuclear weapons. He said Obama's deal with it is a failure because "it only delays Iran's nuclear ambitions." He called the deal "dangerous and short-sighted." He added, "This isn't diplomacy -- its appeasement."

Unless they are unaware of the findings of America's various intelligence agencies and/or have chosen to ignore them, they must be aware that Iran is not developing a nuclear bomb and does not want to possess nuclear weapons. And unless they are completely stupid they also know that even if Iran did possess a few nuclear bombs at some point in the future the idea that it would launch a first strike on Israel is ludicrous in the extreme. To do so would lead to Iran's annihilation in a retaliatory strike and no Iranian leader would be mad enough to invite such a catastrophe.

Why then are all the Republican would-be presidents speaking from Netanyahu's script and dancing to his tune?

The short answer is in two parts.