Staunch U.S. Ally, leader and visionary – prophet in his own time, yet ignored by the White House

Netanyahu looks up at the gallery in honor of Elie Wiesel. (Bergeron Screen Shot)

Tuesday morning, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, delivered an address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

He expressed his deep reservations about the nature and risks of a nuclear agreement being negotiated between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States by Secretary of State John Kerry on behalf of President Barack Obama.

These talks are aimed at slowing – not halting – Iran’s march towards the development, acquisition and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, a goal that Iran’s leadership steadfastly maintains it has the right to do.

After carefully listening to Netanyahu’s message in its entirety and to his firm objections to the terms and conditions which he outlined as being at the core of the negotiations underway, I am able to confidently summarize our president’s offer to Iran in two short paragraphs:

Barack Obama to Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini:

You can have all the nukes you want – not just yet, though.  Your country needs to wait 10 years.  During that time, the West will soften its sanctions on your economy.

At the end of this proposed 10-year agreement during which you will have agreed not to ramp up your nuclear capability, all sanctions and restrictions will be removed.  Then, you are free to go ahead and knock yourself out – build as many nukes as you like.

No one in the White House has denied the sum and substance of Netanyahu’s passionately firm admonitions about the contents of the proposed deal with Iran.

 

It simply kicks the can down the road, well beyond the next 22 months after which the president will be out of office and on the golf links sharpening his skills.

Should this one-sided agreement be enacted by President Barack Obama – he in on track to bypass Congress – he will have placed an insuperable burden upon the next chief executive in the White House.

Iran is led by a regime consisting of an aggressive, expansion-minded group of leaders.  It is situated smack-dab in the tinderbox of the Middle East.

In a decade – a blink of an eye in the march of nations – it will be armed to the teeth with nukes. Netanyahu is concerned that they will be mounted on the tip of intermediate and intercontinental missiles aimed at Iran’s foes, real or perceived.

In his remarks to the U.S. Congress, Netanyahu resolved that Iran cannot be permitted to carry out its threat to “wipe Israel off the map.”

“Never again,” he said.  “Those days when Jewish people remain passive are over . . .  We are no longer scattered . . . we Jewish people can defend ourselves . . . even if Israel has to stand alone . . . Israel will stand . . .”

Who – if anyone – at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is listening?