In Philadelphia in 2008, Candidate Obama threatened his political opponents in stating, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” He continued, “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl.”

Six years into President Obama’s eight-year tenure we are now seeing him with full guns blazing. Unfortunately, they are not directed at Russia, Iran, North Korea, or ISIS. The Bully-in-Chief apparently believes that the world likes “a good brawl” and has chosen Israel and its Jewish citizens as the target of his irrational and venomous rage. 

Despite clear indications well before Obama’s 2008 victory that he would not be a friend of Israel (articulately addressed by many conservative journalists, including AT’s prolific Ed Lasky), watching Obama unchained over the past several months has nonetheless been shocking and disturbing. Obama has aggressively and senselessly sicced his attack dogs on Israel’s Prime Minister. And the efforts to which he is going to block a speech that is intended to prevent the world’s largest purveyor of terrorism from attaining nuclear capability is astounding.

Obama believes, or at least would like the world to believe, that Netanyahu has begun a fight with him. What knives does Obama perceive as having been thrust at him by Netanyahu?  The issuance of building permits and the refusal to acquiesce to administration pressure to sign a dangerous deal with the Palestinians top the list. But apparently Bibi pulled out the butcher knife when he accepted an invitation to speak before Congress next week.

Alas, for a guy who supports gun control, Obama’s arsenal of AK-47s with which he has responded to Netanyahu’s actions is quite extensive. Netanyahu has been personally ridiculed, lambasted and yelled at by Obama and other administration officials, given a time out and abandoned to sit for hours in the basement of the White House while Obama dined on food prepared by his private chef, called names that only classless gutter inhabitants would utter, ignored, abused on the world stage, and generally treated like vermin. 

Furthermore, the detailed list of anti-Israel steps taken by Obama and his administration maintained at Discover the Networks is currently 36 pages long -- and counting. For instance, Obama has leaked and directly disclosed Israeli classified information and military secrets (including Israel’s involvement in developing the Stuxnet virus, outing Israel’s nuclear weapons program, and disclosing a secret agreement that would allow Israel to use Saudi airspace for an Iranian strike). 

Obama reneged on a deal that George W. Bush had made to ensure safe borders in any final deal with the Palestinians. He has blamed Israel for general strife in the region insinuating that if Israel would just make peace with the Palestinians, the civil wars and violence would end.  And he has blamed Israel rather than the terrorists when his attempt to ram a two-state solution down Israel’s throat failed. He has not unconditionally supported Israel at the U.N. as the constant threat of a veto of any anti-Israel resolutions hangs over Israel’s head. And he delayed sending rearmaments and weapons shipments that Israel needed during Operation Cast Lead this summer.

But all of that looks like small handgun-style combat in comparison to the automatic weapons that have been drawn over the past couple of months. Obama wants a deal with Iran and will do almost anything to achieve that goal. Netanyahu wants to ensure Israel’s survival and that of the Jewish people. That means that Iran, a country that is ruled by Jew-hating, Holocaust-denying Islamists who almost daily threaten Israel’s survival cannot be permitted to develop nuclear weapons -- period.  Based on the way the P5+1 negotiations are proceeding, it appears that Iran’s nuclear program will not be required to be dismantled. Like all of Obama’s empty promises, his vow to do everything in his power to prevent Iran from going nuclear was simply a lie uttered for political gain.

Obama will not be stopped in his quest to ensure Iran’s hegemonic takeover of the Middle East -- and certainly not by the likes of an adversary like Netanyahu.  So with all the fire power he can muster, Obama is on the attack as if preventing Netanyahu’s speech before Congress is a life or death matter. He has ordered to combat the big guns like National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who told Charlie Rose that Netanyahu’s speech is “destructive” to the U.S./Israel relationship (ignoring the prior six Obama years of tearing down and destroying what American presidents had recognized as a strategically and morally essential alliance). 

A year after threatening Israel with boycotts if she did not accede to a U.S.-mandated peace with the Palestinians, Kerry is back to bashing Israel. Kerry made the unmerited claim that Netanyahu cannot be trusted because he supported the Iraq war “and look how that turned out.” No mention that Netanyahu was not the prime minister at the time, that Kerry also supported the war, and most importantly, that the only reason Iraq is a failure is because Kerry’s boss chose to surrender the victory.

And despite claiming that the only reason that he won’t meet with Netanyahu when he is in town next week is because it is too close to Israeli elections with which he does not want to appear to interfere, Obama’s former campaign operatives were sent to Israel to help defeat Bibi’s re-election. As if a snub from the president is not enough, Obama has also ensured that Kerry and Biden will be out of town when Netanyahu addresses the joint session of Congress and has encouraged Democrats, including the Congressional Black Caucus, to boycott the speech. 

In preparation for post-speech spin claiming that Netanyahu has no idea what he is talking about, the administration has stopped sharing information with Israel regarding the P5+1 negotiations. Of course, Congress and Americans are being left in the dark as well. Obama is following Nancy Pelosi’s playbook when she claimed, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it away from the fog of the controversy.” Obama wants to sign a treaty allowing Iran to go nuclear before Americans or Netanyahu can stop him.

There has been much conjecture over what motivates Obama in his war on Israel and Netanyahu. Some argue he is a closet Muslim who is anti-Semitic. Certainly he has an affinity for Islam and speaks adoringly of Muslims as he rewrites American history to include them in our founding. Furthermore, Andrea Tantaro questioned whether the White House was in fact anti-Semitic, stating, “I’m asking the question. Because look at the hostility towards Israel. We have never seen an administration more coordinated in their attacks, from Susan Rice to John Kerry to the president, repeatedly, at Netanyahu, calling him, 'destructive".

Obama also has a massive, ever-expanding ego that barely fits inside the White House. He does not take well to anyone who does not adhere to his worldview, bow to his every wish and command, or question his wisdom. Netanyahu’s fears regarding Iran are simply not acceptable to Obama and he will slap him down come hell or high water.

Obama has successfully used Netanyahu’s speech as a distraction moving the narrative away from the substantive issues regarding Iran. Rather than talking about the implications of a nuclear Iran and content of a final status agreement, the media is enthralled with the Netanyahu/Obama spat. Reporting during and after the speech may very well focus on how many Democrats boycotted rather than the content of the speech. 

Elliot Abrams concludes that there are three motivations for Obama’s current temper tantrum:

to damage and defeat Netanyahu (whom Obama has always disliked simply because he is on the right while Obama is on the left) in his election campaign, to prevent Israel from affecting the Iran policy debate in the United States, and worst of all to diminish Israel’s popularity in the United States and especially among Democrats.

Obama has found success is turning Israel into a partisan issue. But this was not a challenging endeavor since the Democrats have been moving away from supporting Israel for years. Susan Rice blaming Netanyahu as the cause of the partisanship is just one more Obama administration lie.

Historically speaking, Netanyahu’s speech may very well be the most important since World War II. At this point, only Congress can stop Obama from caving to the Mullahs and forever changing the world. For instead of preventing a nuclear Iran, Obama is going nuclear on Israel. And if he continues to elevate the type of weaponry he uses in his war against Israel, pulling out nuclear missiles in his final years in office, Israel will need all of the friends in Congress that Netanyahu can muster.