As I read the news and watched the coverage by various news shows that led up to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of congress, the angrier I became.  He seemed so arrogant and cocky as the time approached for him to lambast the President of the United States of America.

As he strode down the same isle as has our President before he gave his State Of The Union addresses, Netanyahu soaked up the attention showered upon him by our elected officials who stood and applauded and scrambled to shake his hand.  When he walked onto the rostrum and before he approached the lectern, a beaming John Boehner reached out and shook his hand.

Sour grapes on my part because he was there to support the Republican Party’s agenda on how to deal with Iran?  No.  Angry because of the underhanded way that this speech to a joint session of congress was arranged especially when The House Speaker knew that Prime Minister Netanyahu was there in an effort to humiliate President Obama and undermine his negotiations with Iran and that it is just another couple of weeks before elections in Israel will be held?  You Bet I am!

The Prime Minister was there to tell American elected officials the exact opposite of what President Obama said regarding negotiations with Iran and tell them to trust him and not President Obama.  Speaker Boehner did not only allow this to happen but he paved the way for it to happen.

He did not notify the administration until the very last minute that Congress had invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of congress.  He also did not notify and discuss this invitation with congressional Democrats in a timely manner.  Protocol was not followed and there is no doubt that stealth was an intended and key part of this invitation.  Speaker Boehner intentionally went against his own president and knowingly gave a foreign leader access to a world stage to humiliate him.

Even if Speaker Boehner felt that this was something that he was compelled to do; it is unprecedented and was also inappropriate.  Although the Prime Minister praised President Obama in the opening of his speech and said that his speech was not intended to hurt or disrespect him; after that, he immediately began to kick him in the teeth.

It might not have been intended to hurt but, boy; I’ll bet that it did hurt!  All of the responsibility for this speech does not fall on Speaker Boehner.  Prime Minister Netanyahu is a world leader and seasoned politician so he knew that his speech to a joint session of congress would be highly politicized and laden with controversial political implications.  He could have stopped it had he wanted to by simply declining the invitation.  But like Speaker Boehner, he might have felt that it was something that he was duty-bound to do.

By the time that all of the publicity preceding his joint session of congress speech and the speech itself had passed, I was really angry.  Steam was all but literally emanating from the top of my head: enter President Obama.

While I am sitting at home seething about how Speaker Boehner and Prime Minister Netanyahu treated him, President Obama – even if he was fuming inside, played down the incident.  Maybe that is one of the reasons why I like him so much; he never lets his adversaries see him sweat.  He responded shortly after the speech with calm and measured response to it.

After he did that I thought, I need to lighten up.  Sure, I need to watch politics and follow its ebbs, flows and various nuances closely but I need to calm down a bit.  If you traveled the same emotional path that I did surrounding the Prime Minister’s speech and many other times during the ebbs and flows of politics, you need to calm down too.

I can’t think of a better way to go about doing this and to end this article than to embrace the words of a prayer that is likely familiar to many of us:

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Amen.”

Eulus Dennis