world >> commentary Obama Left Netanyahu No Other Choice I t is hard to get your arms around the stubborn determination of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. For most of the nine years he has served as Israel's leader, first 1996-1999 and now since 2009, Netanyahu shied away from confrontations or buckled under pressure. He signed deals with the Palestinians he knew the Palestinians would never uphold in the hopes of winning the sup- port of hostile U.S. administrations and a fair shake from the pathologically hateful Israeli media. In recent years, he released terrorist murderers from prison. He abrogated Jewish property rights in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. He agreed to support the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. He agreed to keep giv- ing the Palestinians of Gaza free electrici- ty while they waged war against Israel. He did all of these things in a bid to accom- modate U.S. President Barack Obama and win over the media while keeping the left- ist parties in his coalitions happy. For his part, for the past six years Obama has undermined Israel's national security. He has publicly humiliated Netanyahu repeatedly. He has delegitimized Israel's very existence, embracing the jihadist lie that Israel's existence is the product of post-Holo- caust European guilt rather than 4,000 years of Jewish history. He and his representa- tives have given a back- wind to the forces that seek to wage economic Benjamin warfare against Israel, Netanyahu repeatedly indicating that the application of economic sanctions against Israel — ille- gal under the World Trade Organization treaties — are a natural response to Israel's unwillingness to bow to every Palestinian demand. The same goes for the movement to deny the legitimacy of Israel's very existence. Senior administra- tion officials have threatened that Israel will become illegitimate if it refuses to surrender to Palestinian demands. Last summer, Obama openly colluded with Hamas' terrorist war against Israel. He tried to coerce Israel into accept- ing cease-fire terms that would have amounted to an unconditional surrender to Hamas' demands for open borders and the free flow of funds to the terrorist 24 March 5 • 2015 group. He enacted a partial arms embargo on Israel in the midst of war. He cut off air traffic to Ben-Gurion International Airport under specious and grossly preju- dicial terms in an open act of economic warfare against Israel. And yet, despite Obama's scandalous treatment of Israel, Netanyahu has con- tinued to paper over differences in public and thank Obama for the little he has done on Israel's behalf. He always makes a point of thanking Obama for agreeing to Congress' demand to continue funding the Iron Dome missile defense system (although Obama has sought repeatedly to slash funding for the project). Israelis were united in our opposition to Obama's behav- ior. But Netanyahu said nothing publicly in criticism of Obama's destructive, dangerous policy. He held his tongue in the hopes of winning Obama over through quiet diplomacy. He held his tongue because he believed that the damage Obama was causing Israel was not irreversible in most cases. And it was better to maintain the guise of good relations, in the hopes of actually achieving them, than to expose the frac- tures in U.S.-Israel ties caused by Obama's enormous hostility toward Israel and by his strategic myopia that endangered both Israel and the U.S: other regional allies. And yet, now Netanyahu, the serial accommodator, put everything on the line. He would not accommodate. He would not be bullied. He would not be threatened, even as all the powers that have grown used to bringing him to his knees — the Obama administration, the American Jewish Left, the Israeli media and the Labor party grow evermore shrill and threatening in their attacks against him. Moment Of Truth Netanyahu is convinced that Israel has reached a juncture in its relations with the Obama administration where accommo- dation is no longer possible. Obama's one policy that Netanyahu has never acquiesced to either publicly or privately is his policy of accommodating Iran. Since Obama's earliest days in office, Netanyahu has warned openly and behind closed doors that Obama's plan to forge a nuclear deal with Iran is dangerous. And as the years have passed and the lengths Obama is willing to go to appease Iran's nuclear ambitions have left their marks on the region, Netanyahu's warnings have grown stronger and more urgent. Until Obama entered office, and to an ever-escalating degree until his reelection in 2012, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons has been such an obvi- ous imperative among both Israelis and Americans that Netanyahu's forthright rejection of any nuclear deal in which Iran would be permitted to maintain the components of its nuclear program was uncon- troversial. In some Israeli circles, his trenchant opposition to Iran's acquisition of nuclear capabili- ties was the object of derision, with critics insisting that he was standing strong on some- thing uncontroversial while buckling on issues like nego- tiations with the Palestinians, where he should have stood strong. But now we are seeing that far from being an opportunist, Netanyahu is a leader of historical dimensions. For the past two years, in the interest of reaching a deal, Obama has enabled Iran to take over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. For the first time since 1974, due to Obama's policies, the Golan Heights is an active front in the war against Israel, with Iranian military personnel com- manding Syrian and Hezbollah forces along the border. Iran's single-minded dedication to its goal of becoming a regional hegemon and its commitment to its ultimate goal of destroying the U.S. is being enabled by Obama's policies of accommodation. An Iran in possession of a nuclear arsenal is an Iran that can not only destroy Israel with just one or two warheads, it can make it impossible for Israel to respond to conventional aggression carried out by terrorist forces and others operating under an Iranian nuclear umbrella. Irreversible Damage Whereas Israel can survive Obama on the Palestinian front by stalling, waiting him out and placating him where possible, and can even survive his support for Hamas by making common cause with the Egyptian military and the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the damage Obama's intended deal with Iran will cause Israel will be irreversible. The moment that Obama grants Iran a path to a nuclear arsenal — and the terms of the agreement that Obama has offered Iran grant Iran an unimpeded path to nuclear power — a future U.S. administration will be hard- pressed to put the genie back in the bottle. For his efforts to prevent irreparable harm to Israel, Netanyahu is being sub- jected to the most brutal and vicious attacks any Israeli leader has ever been subjected to by an American administra- tion and its political allies. They are being assisted in their efforts by a shameless Israeli opposition that is willing to endan- ger the future of the country in order to seize political power. Every day brings another serving of abuse. A week ago, National Security Adviser Susan Rice accused Netanyahu of destroying U.S. relations with Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry effectively called him a serial alarmist, liar and war- monger. For its part, the Congressional Black Caucus intended to sabotage Netanyahu's address before the joint houses of Congress by walking out in the middle, thus symbolically accusing of racism the leader of the Middle East's only liberal democracy and the leader of the most persecuted people in human history. Radical leftist representatives, who happen to be Jewish, like Jan Schakowsky of suburban Chicago and Steve Cohen of Memphis, are joining Netanyahu's boycot- ters in order to give the patina of Jewish legitimacy to an administration whose central foreign policy threatens the viabil- ity of the Jewish state. Netanyahu did not come to Washington to warn Congress against Obama's nuclear deal with Iran because he seeks a fight with Obama. Netanyahu has devoted the last six years to avoiding a fight with Obama, often at great cost to Israel's national security and to his own political position. Netanyahu came to Washington because Obama has left him no choice. And all decent people of good will should support him — and those who do not and those who are silent should be called out for their treachery and cowardice. ❑ For an updates on the aftermath of Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech, go to the IN's website, www.thejewishnews.corn.