Netanyahu Trying to Manipulate U.S. Election?

     It seems that he sees the election season as a period where he has a lot of leverage. His claim yesterday that at the President jilted him on meeting him in NY was clearly a political grenade. A claim, for the record, that the White House denies.

     This after his mawkish talk about the U.S. losing any "moral authority" in criticizing Israel attacking Iran if it doesn't give Iran some "red lines.."

     The President is right not to allow the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister to goad him into brinkmanship with Iran. However, the Prime Minister likely sees this as the perfect time to hold Obama's feet to the fire.

     We see how desperately opportunistic Romney is becoming with his bizarre attacks on the Administration after the tragic attacks that killed 5 in the U.S. embassy in Libya, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya.

     Romney not helping himself with political attack on Libya

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2012/09/romney-not-helping-himself-with.html

     So what's going on with Netanyahu? Some even in his own country wonder if he wants a "regime change" here in the US of A:

     But supporters and opponents of Mr. Netanyahu alike are disturbed by the blunt and public way in which the dialogue has been conducted, particularly at a delicate political moment ahead of the American elections in November."

     "Shaul Mofaz, the opposition leader in the Israeli Parliament, attacked Mr. Netanyahu, accusing him of breaking a cardinal rule by meddling in American politics."

     “Prime Minister, who do you think is Israel’s greatest enemy? The United States or Iran?” he asked from the podium in Parliament. “Who do you fear more, Mr. Netanyahu — Ahmadinejad or President Obama?” he said, referring to the Iranian president."

    “Which administration is it more important for you to replace — the administration in Washington or that in Tehran?,” he added. “Explain to us, Mr. Prime Minister, what are your red lines in managing the current crisis with the Americans over Iran?

     http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/middleeast/netanyahus-comments-cause-stir-in-israel.html

     What it probably comes down to is that he thinks he can maybe win more concessions before the elections. It might be that he prefers Romney even, but his calculus is that whether Romney wins or not, he wants the concessions.  Maybe Obama wins but has to cave:

     "Netanyahu desperately wants an attack on Iran. The White House desperately wants to avoid war. The stakes are quite, quite high."

     "Netanyahu knows that his leverage over the White House grows each day the US gets closer to election day. The day after election day it drops precipitously. That’s a volatile and dangerous set of circumstances. Netanyahu seems to be threatening to start meddling in the US elections if Obama doesn’t come to his position. Or rather, he is meddling and threatening more. Or, more worrisomely, he’s fixing to launch an attack now while he figures the election will constrain Obama’s options as much as possible."

    "The politics and policy are impossible to pull apart because they’re woven together in the same clothe. It’s high stakes poker with the fate of millions on the line."

     http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/09/high_stakes_poker.php?ref=fpblg

     Just the same. this strategy is not without risk for the Prime Minister which is why there has been a decent amount of pushback in Israel as the quotes above show. Israel has always been careful not to seem to favor one party over the other-after all it wants the U.S. to always be friendly to its agenda, not only when a Republican is in office. So Netanyahu has to be careful not to go too far with this either.