Sunday, March 1, 2015

Jackson Diehl, "In appealing to Congress, Netanyahu places a dicey political bet": Sorry, It's Not All About Politics

Obama is in a panic. Netanyahu has decided to reveal to Congress details of the pending deal between the P5+1 and Iran, and it's not a pretty picture. Although Iran might delay assembly of its first nuclear weapon until after Obama finishes his second term as president, Iran will likely possess its first atomic bomb within five years. Within a decade, when the restrictions of the agreement no longer apply, Iran will have ICBMs with nuclear warheads capable of striking the US.

In a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "In appealing to Congress, Netanyahu places a dicey political bet," Jackson Diehl today concludes:

"If Netanyahu is defeated, U.S.Israeli relations may return swiftly to comity, as happened after the 1999 and 1992 elections. If the election produces a centrist coalition of the Likud and Labor parties, tensions might also drop. But if Netanyahu succeeds in breaking the past pattern and forms another right-wing coalition, an alliance that has been the heart of American engagement in the Middle East will, like the U.S. relationship with Iran, be headed toward an upheaval."

Yes, Netanyahu is a political animal, but the Iranian nuclear threat transcends politics. And although Senator Dianne Feinstein can call Netanyahu "arrogant" and declare that he does not speak for her as a Jew, he will be speaking for me before Congress at a time when Obama is putting the pieces in place for a second holocaust. Moreover, if Feinstein believes that the Israeli Labor Party, should it come to power, will ignore the Iranian threat in the years to come, she is sorely mistaken.

Before proclaiming other people's arrogance, Feinstein might wish to consider taking the time to read Ray Takeyh's Washington Post opinion piece, also of today's date, entitled "The strategic genius of Iran’s supreme leader." Takeyh, born in Tehran and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes:

"Khamenei is also a first-rate strategic genius who is patiently negotiating his way to a bomb.

After years of defiance, Khamenei seems to appreciate that his most advantageous path to nuclear arms is through an agreement.

. . . .

As Khamenei presses toward an accord that will place him in an enviable nuclear position, he can also be assured that technical violations of his commitments would not be firmly opposed. Once a deal is transacted, the most essential sanctions against Iran will evaporate. It is unlikely that Europeans, much less China or Russia, would agree to their reconstitution should Iran be caught cheating. And as far as the use of force is concerned, the United States has negotiated arms-control compacts for at least five decades and has never used force to punish a state that has incrementally violated its treaty obligations."

Then there is also today's declaration by the director general of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano:

"The Agency is not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

Obama doesn't know all of this? Of course he does. The man is a radical, who, nearing the end of his presidency, is prepared to shed any pretense of moderation. Remarkably, 81-year-old Feinstein, blinded by partisanship and age, continues to march in lockstep behind him, singing hosannas.

2 comments:

  1. "Sorry, It's Not All About Politics"
    Yes, it's scary how many people are simplistic. I am not talking about politicians who are usually opportunist and corrupt. I am talking about regular Jewish Democrats, for example, who view the world in simplistic terms. You can't imagine how many times I heard "But Netanyahu ..." (not only now, always whenever Israel is mentioned). Unlike me, who has a masters in Jewish history, they, much more privileged (I'm a immigrant), never bothered to familiarize themselves with their Jewish traditions (yes, there is more to Judaism than Zabar's knish) and history.
    They spend their idiotic lives on a very shallow, primitive level, without any serious reflection, manipulated by their enemies. They don't care and continue their idiotic posturing of "tolerance," political sophistication and oh, ah, culture.
    Feinstein is repulsive.

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  2. So many American Jews have lived in a bubble, failing to understand the depth of Jew-hatred in America.
    They do not even fathom they live in modern ghettos from SanFran to Boston.

    the Democratic Party has morphed into an increasingly fragile coalition based on identity politics, and the signs from my 1950's childhood "No Jews or Dogs allowed" now applies to Dems2015.

    Not me, which is why I once again tried to figure out aliyah after the Paris murders. Seems Israel does not want Jews like me, which has me wondering why my grandparents ever left Poland for Amerika...

    at least I now know I prefer dogs to "democrats"!

    It's not just the Netanyahu-bashing. The entire foreign policy of Obama's fantasy is a disaster, from Canada to Egypt.

    Why these dem senators follow like lemmings over the cliff is unfathomable.

    k

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