Communications the Obama administration obtained through surveillance of Israeli officials should be released to the public, an op-ed in the country’s Haaretz newspaper suggested on Sunday.
“The president, after all, has been unable to build a working relationship with the Congress,” asserts the sardonic polemic, penned by New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky for Israel’s oldest daily newspaper. “Could it not be that the most efficient — even only — way for Obama to find out what Congress really thinks is to listen in on the visits congressmen make to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu?”
“Congress can talk with [Netanyahu]. It loves him, and vice versa,” Lipsky wrote. “This is evident in all three of the invitations Netanyahu received to address a joint meeting of Congress. It has repeatedly welcomed him with rapturous applause.”
Lipsky also criticized the administration for its secrecy during the negotiations.
“It’s hard, at this stage, to see why the details should be kept from the public,” Lipsky wrote. “To find out what was happening in the Iran parley, Congress questioned all sorts of people — including our own state secretary, John Kerry. It couldn’t get a full answer from Kerry, even after the deal was done. At one point, Kerry suggested that even he didn’t know what was in the side deals between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran.
“The only person who seems to have been transparent is Netanyahu himself … So does he keep a transcript of what transpired in his office? That would be one route to full transparency on this issue. Imagine what would happen if Netanyahu turned out to be more forthcoming with Congress than Obama has been,” Lipsky adds.
“Better yet, President Obama himself could release whatever transcripts his intelligence agencies have assembled of the conversations congressmen and visiting civilians participated in during visits with Netanyahu,” Lipsky concludes. “And why not? Given the way Wikileaks has been operating, the details are bound to come out sooner or later. So President Obama might as well beat them to the story.”
A Dec. 29 report in the Wall Street Journal revealed the National Security Agency had engaged in surveillance of Israeli officials over the course of last year’s nuclear negotiations with Iran. In the process, the agency also collected communications between Israeli officials and members of Congress.
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At least one congressional panel has opened an investigation into the report, with the House Oversight Committee asking the NSA to furnish details on its surveillance program by Jan. 15.
