TAMPA — Derek Harvey, a retired Army colonel, former adviser to top U.S. military leaders in Iraq, and director of a University of South Florida global think tank, will be seated in the gallery of the House of Representatives on Tuesday to hear Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak about the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran.
Harvey will have plenty of local company in the chamber.
Most members of the Tampa region’s congressional delegation say they also will attend the speech, which has created tension between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama and played into political schisms between the left and the right. Many Democrats, like Vice President Joe Biden, say they will stay away from the speech over objections that it was Republican House Speaker John Boehner rather than Obama who offered the invitation and that it comes on the eve of elections in Israel.
The divide extends even to U.S. military leaders.
Harvey is in the camp that believes the Iranians pose a threat not just to Israel but to U.S. interests and to countries such as Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Jordan and Turkey.
William Fallon, former commander of U.S. Central Command, sees the speech in another light — as unnecessary gamesmanship against a backdrop of Israel’s domestic politics.
*****❖
The U.S. is working with five other nations — Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany — on negotiations with Iran that would end long-standing sanctions against the Shia nation in return for limits on its nuclear ambitions.
Harvey, director of USF’s Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict, is unequivocal in his position.
“They should have nothing in the way of nukes, period,” Harvey said. “It would be one thing if Tehran’s behavior had been moderated, but it has not. Their malign behavior and strategic endgame remain inimicable to our interests.”
Netanyahu’s speech, Harvey said, comes from the vantage of someone “facing a truly existential threat from a country ideologically driven and committed to the eradication of Israel.”
A nuclear-armed Iran also changes the balance between Israel and clients of Iran also committed to Israel’s destruction, Harvey said.
“One cannot accept the change in strategic balance of having nuclear deterrent and nuclear capability for first strike,” said Harvey. “It changes the dynamic between Hizballah and Israel and Hamas and Israel in terms of intrawar escalation. It puts handcuffs on Tel Aviv’s ability to defend itself.”
A factor in the administration’s position, Harvey said, is the overlap between U.S. and Iranian interests against the Sunni insurgent group Islamic State.
The two countries, who have long been adversaries, are working together — through the Iraqi government — to coordinate attacks against the Islamic State, Harvey said.
Additionally, Shia militia, after conferring with Iranians, will contact Iraqi security forces to call in airstrikes, he said.
A nuclear-armed Iran could set off a regional arms race where nations such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey will look to get their own nuclear arsenals, joining India, Pakistan and Israel.
To stop the threat of Iran melding nuclear weapons with long-range missiles capable of hitting anywhere in Israel, Tel Aviv has options, Harvey said.
“But they would have to cross a threshold,” he said. “It would not be just using the Israeli air force to conduct strikes with deep-penetrating conventional munitions. It would be about going after the Tehran regime and military in a much wider way. They have a nuclear capability. It doesn’t always have to be used as a second strike or deterrent capacity.”
Fallon, a retired admiral who led Centcom at MacDill Air Force Base in 2007 and 2008, sees the Netanyahu speech in a different vein.
“It’s inappropriate as hell,” he said. “This whole show in Washington is pretty bad.”
Netanyahu, who faces re-election March 17, “is obviously coming over here to lobby for purely political purposes at the behest of one political faction. It is not appropriate. Is it illegal? No. But is it the right thing to do? Of course not.”
Fallon also took issue with the Israeli prime minister’s frequent assertions of pending doom.
“How many years in a row has he said, ‘This is the most imminent threat and that if you don’t do something about these guys right now, the end of the world is going to come’?”
He also expressed frustration at the implications for U.S. politics.
“It is just adding more fuel to the partisan stupidity in our country,” Fallon said. “Whoever thinks this is a good idea, they don’t care. They just care about their position and it’s too bad. There are too many other things we need to be doing without stoking the fires of continuous hate and discontent.”
❖***** ❖ ❖
All members of the Tampa region’s Congressional delegation, responding to questions about Netanyahu’s speech, said they will attend.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, the lone Democrat among them, confirmed her attendance through a spokesperson but did not answer questions from the Tribune.
U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis said through a spokesman he is attending because Netanyahu “is a friend and ally of the United States” and he believes in “showing support to our allies.”
Bilirakis is “skeptical of an agreement negotiated by the Obama administration” and suggests in the alternative a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran if there is no deal by June 30.
U.S. Rep Dennis Ross said that instead of negotiations allowing Iran to maintain its nuclear development program, “Iran should dismantle its entire nuclear enrichment program and discontinue its long history of supporting radical Islamic terrorist organizations.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney said he would “not support any treaty to remove the sanctions while allowing Iran to maintain their nuclear ambitions.”
And U.S. Rep. David Jolly told the Tribune he supports Netanyahu’s speech and his position because “Israel is critical to our national security and they are our greatest ally in very volatile region. We need to do everything we can to support their people.”
Florida’s U.S. Senators are split along party lines. Democrat Bill Nelson said, via a spokesman, that he “is not happy that the speech is taking place, even as the U.S. secretary of state is negotiating a peace treaty.”
Republican Marco Rubio, in a statement to the Tribune, said, “Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East, and yet this administration is treating Iran’s Ayatollah, who has the blood of Americans on his hands, with more respect than the Prime Minister of Israel.”
PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak to Congress on the nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOTO: Derek Harvey, chief of USF’s global think tank, says Iran poses threats to more than just Israel.