The Israeli PM's speech to US Congress is over with, unsurprisingly, no viable alternative to the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, but plenty of fearmongering, victimhood, condescension. Oh and fawning adoration from the mainly Republican audience. Netanyahu should have taken the sage advice to stay at home.
One of the most anticipated speeches of recent times is over.
Was it worth the wait? No.
Why? Because it didn't deliver anything new, came up with no plausible alternatives, was patronizing, condescending, warmongering, designed to frighten, embarassingly full of faux flattery, and was targeted at the domestic Israeli audience rather than the the Amercican taxpayers who pay the bill for the stage - US Congress.
After 35 minutes and 24 forelock tugging standing ovations by the Republican dominated US Congress (not all Democrats attended and many who did remained in their seats) involving a cacophony of cheers and applause, Israel's Prime Minister had the chutzpah to stand and demand that the work of the P5+1 cease unless it demands Iran completely capitulate and settle for no nuclear capacity at all.
Making such a demand is actually not a plan, particularly so when it comes from a state which hides its own nuclear arsenal and is not subject to one single inspection from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
His rhetoric is eerily close to that of the theocrats he so dsepises in Iran. He accuses them of hiding aspects of their nuclear programme when he is hiding the entire kit and caboodle.
He accuses them of repression when the 48 year illegal occupation of Palestine he now presides over is repression on a scale Iran can't even compete with.
He accuses the Mullahs as he likes to call them, of gobbling up nations through proxy wars in the Middle East, while he gobbles up at a voracious pace the land for the Palestinian State through illegal settlements, racist laws and bureaucracide of the Palestinian inhabitants.
Netanyahu used his speech to warn the world that Iran can not be trusted, yet he grossly misled President Obama by feigning support for negotiations with the Palestinians on a two state solution only to take more of their land knowing no negotiation could even happen when he was gobbling up the prize.
It is no wonder the p5+1 has not sought his advice in the delicate art of international political negotiation.
How Benjamin Netanyahu can stand and deliver a rousing collection of sound bites when he knows, and we know, and he knows we know, this emperor has no clothes.
But that's his style. Ignore the reality of his domestic election issues - housing and health system crises and unemployment for starters - and find a big flash partisan stage from which to convince Israeli voters that Netanyahu alone can save the world from itself. That he is 'the man' tough enough to show the Persians a thing or two.
Perhaps that is why he strangely spoke of a Persian assault against the Jews 2,500 years ago and of course the assault against the Americans in 1979 so binding Israel and the U.S. as one in victimhood at the hands of the Iranians.
As Nancy Pelosi and others have remarked post speech, Netanyahu's attitude was "an insult to the intelligence of the United States" and she was "saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran".
Yet the Israeli PM was never going to do anything but present himself as the foremost authority on the greatest threat to the world - "the marriage of militant Islam with Nuclear weapons".
Netanyahu has now demanded the negotiators walk away from the "very bad deal", which by the way is still being negotiated, claiming the Iranians will come begging because apparently "this often happens in a Persian bazaar. Call their bluff. They'll come back" if the sanction screws are tightened even more.
This was a puzzling part of the speech because at on point the Iranians are "powerful and unchanging" and yet here they are "vulnerable and weak" enough to come crawling back to the negotiators willing to capitulate to being a totally nuclear free zone.
Netanyahu tried to convince that the deal under negotiation ( which he has been excluded from having information because he can't be trusted) will not stop an Iranian bomb, instead it will pave the way for one. He railed against the concept of a sunset clause ( thought to e 10-15 years) at which point Iran would have no sanctions against it and be free to continue its peaceful nuclear programme, subject to regular inspections and compliance with the NPT which it is a member of.
Tuesday's speech will not impact the current negotiations, it will not impact the timetable already set, nor the content of the deal.
If anything it might make the Iranians more determined to sign and see the lifting of sanctions.
Congress may begin debate on the Nuclear Review Act which would force Obama to seek congressional approval before any final deal with Iran. Netanyahu will now alter Ovama's determination to veto that Act should a deal be forthcoming.
Netanyahu claimed that in reference to Iran helping the fight against Daesh does not make it a friend of any of us.
The enemy of your enemy is still your enemy when it comes to Iran. He however may have proven himself to be a friend of Iran's by pointing out the alternatives if they don't sign this deal.
So now the theatrics of Netanyahu's speech of no viable alternatives has been delivered, he can race off home to his election hoping that at least he has convinced voters there that he is their saviour - despite many Israelis and Jews around the world furious with him that he self appointed himself as such.
Still ringing in our ears however are some little treasures of chutzpah....
"The days when the Jewish people remain passive in the face of genocidal enemies are over"....."if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand"....quickly of course adding that it doesn't have to stand alone because America stands with it.
America bankrolls it...." This capital dome has helped pay for our Iron dome (missile defence system)...and just this week Israel requested another $300million plus for more defensive weaponry.....on top of its annual handout of $3billion from the country whose foreign policy he has just ridiculed.
Let us also not forget that never once in this speech did Netanyahu mention the actual greatest threat to Israel - its own illegal military occupation of Palestine where an entire people cannot be expected to sit back and applaud that the security of the nuclear armed state of Israel must always be paramount.
Perhaps the Palestinians should follow Netanyahu's advice as at the end of his speech he theatrically turned his gaze upward to the ceiling of the congressional chamber and quoted, for those who have probably never noticed the inscription of Moses, saying "be strong and resolute. Neither fear nor dread them".
just imagine if the Palestinians took him at his word....or the Iranians for that matter...