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A Grave Mistake In The Offing.
D
oesn't it trouble you, just a
pened next, and as your dutiful secre-
touch, Mr. President, that you
tary of state seeks desperately to final-
might have this all wrong?
ize the agreement you have sought with
Isn't there a nagging little voice,
Iran — an agreement with a regime
somewhere right at the
that makes no secret of its
back of your mind, warn-
desire to see the elimination
ing you that, maybe, just
of Israel, an agreement with
maybe, you ought to be
a regime that is expanding its
listening seriously to
hold on country after coun-
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
try in our region, an agree-
when he calls out "Death to
ment that falls far, far short
America," rather than insis-
of dismantling Iran's nuclear
tently tuning him out?
program?
Do you not have the
Do you not hear a grim his-
slightest fear that, when
torical echo, and ask yourself
history comes to judge you,
whether you are not risking
it will bracket you along-
the abandonment of another
side Neville Chamberlain?
small, embattled democ-
"The settlement of the
racy and the emboldening
Czechoslovakian prob-
of another ruthless would-
lem, which has now been
be superpower, motivated by
achieved is, in my view, only
another hideous ideology?
the prelude to a larger settle-
Do you not worry, not even
ment in which all Europe
for a moment before you close
may find peace the British
your eyes at night, that your
prime minister declared on
irritation with that impossibly
Sept. 30, 1938 — precisely
arrogant prime minister of
76 and a half years ago.
Israel has skewed your judg-
"This morning I had
ment?
Can you easily shrug off
Ayatollah Ali
another talk with the
his
warnings
that the Iranians
Khamenei
German Chancellor, Herr
are tricking you? Can you dis-
Hitler, and here is the paper
miss his charge that you could
which bears his name upon
have done better, held firmer,
it as well as mine ... We
set the bar higher?
regard the agreement signed
"One of the failures, I think,
last night ... as symbolic
of our approach in the past has
of the desire of our two
been to use a lot of strong rheto-
peoples never to go to war
ric but not follow through with
with one another again...
the kinds of both carrots and
President
I believe it is peace for our
sticks that might change the cal-
Barack Ob ama
time. We thank you from
culus of the Iranian regime," you
the bottom of our hearts. Go
told this writer when we spoke in
home and get a nice quiet sleep"
Jerusalem in 2008, before you became
Does that inane rhetoric, that tragic
president. Have you not offered too
rhetoric, not chill you as you read it all
many carrots, and failed to brandish a
terrifying stick?
these decades later, knowing what hap-
Jews In Congress Tell
Obama To Lay Off Bibi
Twelve Jewish Democratic members
of the House of Representatives told
the Obama administration to quiet
the rhetoric against Israel and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The website Politico reports that
the dozen Democrats, including
Rep. Sander Levin of Roseville, last
week told Deputy Security Adviser
Ben Rhodes that although they share
with the president the upset about
Netanyahu's apparent rejection of a
two-state solution, the administra-
tion had made its point.
Can you ignore Benjamin
Netanyahu's concerns that the Iranians
will inevitably violate this agreement,
and that even if those violations are
detected, you, Mr. President, are now
the leader of an international commu-
nity that lacks the will to prevent a sub-
sequent Iranian breakout to the bomb?
Do you not ask yourself whether you
might have acted differently in 2009,
when the Iranian public mustered the
beginnings of an attempt to oust the
ayatollahs? You failed to offer concrete
assistance, and their nascent uprising
was brutally suppressed. Are you not
even mildly disturbed by the notion
that this accord, this deal you so deter-
minedly seek, will cement in power this
ideologically and territorially rapacious
regime, this regime that so bitterly
represses its own people?
Mr. President, I think you are
troubled, and worried, and disturbed.
I think, deep down, you do hear that
nagging voice. I think the dispassion-
ate, ultra-confident manner you affect
masks the doubts. I fear you have sur-
rounded yourself with people who dare
not question you with sufficient intel-
lectual vigor. I fear that you are will-
fully blinding yourself to the tragedy
you are about to inflict upon us all.
I hope I'm wrong. I'm not certain.
But we are plainly at a historical cross-
roads, and I worry — how could I not?
— that a grave mistake is in the offing,
with profound historical consequences,
for Israel, the region, the free world.
And it is the certainty with which
you are pursuing what seems an
unfathomable course of appeasement
— of an enemy that reminds us all
every day, in word and deed, that it is
the enemy of the free world — it is that
certainty of yours that worries me most
of all.
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❑
Reported Politico:
and gratuitous."
"Obama and his aides,
Politico reported that
they said, had to stop act-
the president believes that
ing as if the Israeli prime
it's up to Netanyahu to
minister's comments are
repair the rift by resuming
the only thing holding up
the peace process.
a peace process that's been
"We've made our point.
abandoned for a year while
The message has clearly
not expressing a word of
been received," a White
disappointment about
House official said,
Sander L evin
Palestinian President
according to Politico.
Mahmoud Abbas — and
"The next move is
openly toying with allowing the
theirs, presumably after the new
Palestinians their provocative recog-
government has been formed."
nition bid at the United Nations. The
swipes at Netanyahu felt vindictive
JN
April 2 • 2015
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