According to the WSJ, the White House used those taps to fully monitor Netanyahu’s efforts to turn Congress against the Iran deal. The NSA report described Ambassador Dermer coaching Jewish-American groups, giving them talking points to use with lawmakers to push them to kill the deal. The Israeli embassy in DC told the WSJ “these allegations are total nonsense,” which means they’re probably true.
A fascinating part of the WSJ Wednesday report shows how the US was able to signal to Netanyahu that they were aware of his plans and to add a special warning. The Americans were in a panic over the possibility that the PM would reveal the details of the Iran deal during his speech to Congress. And so, on the day before the speech, Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Switzerland he was concerned that Netanyahu would divulge “selective details of the ongoing negotiations.” It put Bibi on notice, and, indeed, he never mentioned those secrets in his speech to Congress.
Having examined in great detail the erosion of US-Israel relations with the aid of those NSA surveillance taps on Netanyahu et al, the WSJ concurrently published a thorough review of the politicking behind the Netanyahu March 3 Congressional speech. Part of the riddle that needs to be put to rest sooner or later is: was the White House not aware of Bibi’s emerging Republican plot?
According to the WSJ, Boehner and McConnell decided to officially invite Netanyahu on Jan. 21, the day after Obama’s State of the Union address–in which the president spoke at length in praise of the Iran deal. Now the mystery part: on Jan. 20, Kerry had a 45-minute meeting with Amb. Dermer, about which the Secretary of State later complained that Dermer told him nothing about the planned speech. The Israelis, for their part, are claiming they “felt it would be inappropriate” to bring up the speech before the speaker himself had a chance to let the Administration know officially.
Much has been said about this breach of protocol, which was used by the White House to pin down the Ambassador as conspiring with the loyal opposition against the party in government. But today, in light of the WSJ report, there can be no doubt Kerry was fully aware of the “plot” from its early hatching days, and may have scheduled the meeting with Ambassador Dermer as a personal ambush.