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Wrong Man? Right Decision!

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I

t took him 16 months to get
be to carry the nukes it lied about not
around to it, but U.S. President
wanting to build.
Donald Trump finally kept another
Thanks to the free pass Obama gave
campaign promise and pulled the
Iran in Syria, it not only enabled the
United States out of the Iran nuclear
barbarous survival of Syrian President
deal. To his critics, especially
Bashar Assad’s regime, but
the Obama administration
allowed the establishment of
alumni who have dedicated
Iranian bases there to further
themselves to defending the
threaten Israel and moderate
44th president’s foreign-policy
Arab regimes.
legacy, the move is quintes-
Yet Trump’s critics still
sential Trump: irresponsible,
claim that the deal was only
impulsive, politically moti-
focused on nuclear issues,
vated, and rooted in ignorance
and that for all its flaws,
Jonathan S.
and malice.
the agreement stalled that
Tobin
But while Trump can be all
threat. They assert that
those things and more, the
Trump is making it easier for
narrative that his Iran policy
Iran to go back to preparing
is a foolish departure from
to break out to build a bomb
the wise efforts of his predecessor is
with no “plan B” to ensure how it will
false. Think what you like of Trump
be stopped.
the man and his relentless Twitter
Those who believe Trump is wrong
account. Yet for all of his faults, in
are making the same mistake that
making what may well turn out to
Obama made in the negotiations.
be the most significant decision of
Obama acted as if he needed a deal
his presidency, Trump not only did
more than Iran and then abandoned
the right thing, but also exposed the
all of the West’s demands that it give
intellectual bankruptcy of the sup-
up its nuclear quest one by one. As
posed adults in Washington, the U.S.
a result, Iran got to keep its program
foreign-policy establishment and
and advanced research capabilities
America’s European allies.
and also forced the United States to
Though the way forward may well
agree to sunset provisions that will
be difficult and fraught with peril, by
mean that within 10 to 15 years, all of
taking the first formal step to reverse
the restrictions on their nuclear capa-
former President Barack Obama’s
bilities will expire.
effort to appease the Islamist regime,
Even if there were no other flaws
Trump has demonstrated that he has
in the deal — and there are many —
a surer grasp of how to defend U.S.
that one alone would have justified
national security — and that of our
Trump’s decision since a failure to
allies — than all the people who are
renegotiate the JCPOA is tantamount
assumed to be smarter than him.
to conceding that Iran will get a
To understand why requires not
nuclear weapon sooner or later.
only an explanation of how deeply
Unlike Obama, Trump understands
flawed the nuclear pact is, but why
that Iran is the weaker player in
those who claim that it’s working just
this confrontation, not the United
fine (and who predict that Trump is
States. While it may threaten to start
plunging the world into a crisis) are
building a weapon, doing so would
wrong.
force the Europeans — and even
The first point to be made about
the Russians and the Chinese — to
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
back Trump. That would accelerate a
Action (JCPOA) is that it didn’t fulfill
return to international sanctions and
Obama’s 2012 campaign promise to
isolate them again. With unrest inside
end the threat of an Iranian nuclear
Iran building — both from anger over
weapon. Instead, Obama’s despera-
the theocracy’s impact on the lives
tion to make a deal at any price — a
of ordinary Iranians, and frustration
desire rooted in the president’s belief
over the Islamist tyranny’s incompe-
that détente with Tehran was both
tence and corrupt management of the
possible and desirable — resulted in
economy — there is no way the aya-
granting the Iranian nuclear program
tollahs will roll the dice in a standoff
an international seal of approval. It
with the Americans in that way.
enriched and empowered the Islamist
Trump is calling their bluff, and he
regime and granted it an undeserved
is right to do so.
legitimacy. But rather than “get right
That means the immediate danger
with the world,” as Obama promised,
of an Iranian breakout is unlikely to
Iran used the massive cash windfall
materialize. Once that’s clear, the
in unfrozen assets and the lifting of
administration can begin tightening
sanctions to ramp up its aggressive
the noose on Iran’s economy by not
behavior, as well as continue building
only re-imposing U.S. sanctions, as
missiles whose only purpose would
Trump has done, but also by warning

10

May 17 • 2018

jn

other nations, including America’s
European allies, that anyone who
does business with Iran will not be
able to conduct transactions with U.S.
financial institutions. The French and
the Germans will scream, but they
would have no choice but to comply.
As much as the president’s critics
argue that he has forfeited America’s
role as leader of the free world with
his behavior, his policies make it clear
that it is Trump — and not the seem-
ingly more respectable Emmanuel
Macron or level-headed Angela
Merkel — who is defending the West.
In other words, although Obama
apologists and the Europeans have
kept telling us that there’s no way that
America can start to roll back the deal
on its own, Trump is about to do just
that. And it will not only unravel the
nuclear deal, but also begin reversing
the gains Iran has made in the last
four years as its prestige rose and its
coffers began to fill. Sooner or later,
as Trump predicted, Iran will have no
choice but to talk about a new nucle-
ar deal that will, in contrast to the
pathetic show put on by Obama and
former Secretary of State John Kerry,
be on America’s terms, not that of the
ayatollahs.
Far from endangering U.S. secu-
rity, Trump’s move was the first
step toward averting the peril that
Obama’s shortsighted effort at
appeasement created. Are there risks
associated with this strategy? Of
course, there are. But they are not
as great as the risks, both long- and
short-term, that Obama’s deal cre-
ated.
As was the case with his decision
to reverse Obama’s campaign to cre-
ate more daylight between the United
States and Israel — and to recognize
Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish
state — Trump has dismissed the
conventional wisdom of the so-called
experts. His instinctual distrust of the
establishment was not a manifesta-
tion of his ignorance, but a recogni-
tion that they were, as they have been
for decades, dead wrong.
There are still many good reasons
to distrust Trump and to be disgusted
by his personal behavior. But hard as
it may be for those who despise him
to admit, on Iran — as on Israel and
Jerusalem — he has done the right
thing. As his efforts to stop the rogue
regime in Tehran continue, those who
oppose this strategy will deserve our
scorn. Not Trump. •

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS —
Jewish News Syndicate.

cooperation in military facilities with
North Korea made it impossible for the
United States to certify, as the JCPOA
requires, that a) Iran is “transparently,
verifiably and fully implementing” the
agreement; and b) “has not taken any
action, including covert activities, that
could significantly advance its nuclear
weapons program.
“France, Germany and the United
Kingdom have made intensive efforts to
bring Iran closer to compliance, but they
failed.
“Withdrawal from the JCPOA is not
the end of the process. The president
and America’s allies must find ways to
protect the United States, Europe, and
the Middle East from Iranian aggression
— both nuclear and non-nuclear. But
we believe President Trump has taken
a decision that is responsive to the situ-
ation and vital to the national security
interests of the United States.”
The Jewish Policy Center is a
Conservative-leaning think tank based in
Washington, D.C. •

CORRECTIONS
In the story “Chaos / Control,” page 36 in
the May 3 issue, it should have said that
artist Rene Lichtman was among the
founders of the groups Hidden Child/
Child Survivors and World Federation of
Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust.

In the story “Hope Not Handcuffs” (May
10, page 16), the name of attorney Amy
Wechsler was misspelled. Her husband is
Don Wechsler.

Yiddish Limerick

SHAVUOT

Mir alle in Sinai Gevain
Un Moishe Rabbeinu gezayn.
Un “Naase v’nishma” we said with
no fear Mir Yidn, we hold undzer
Torah so dear.
And on Shvuos to shul mir vel gayn.

Mir alle: we all
Gevayn: were
Un Moishe Rabbeinu Gezayn: and
Moses our Rabbi saw
Naase v’nishma: We’ll do and we’ll
hear
Mi Yidn: we Jews
Undzer: our
Shvuos: Shavuot
Mir vel gayn: we will go.

By Rachel Kapen