Obama to Visit Israel Next Week to Promote Nuclear Deal With Iran?

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"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

- George Orwell

Apparently, I'm from a dying generation that never took the trouble to master "Newspeak." And when Obama told Americans in July 2009 that if you like your doctor and your health care plan, you can keep them, I wanted to believe that this young man meant exactly what he said, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Similarly, I had hoped that when Obama declared that "No deal is better than a bad deal" and concurrently told us of "anytime, anywhere" inspections and sanctions that would "snap-back" if Iran violated its nuclear agreement with the P5+1, he intended these avowals as heartfelt expressions of the truth. Again, however, I was mistaken.

As I said before, I never took the time to master Newspeak.

And so it is that a theocratic Iran that hangs gay men, stones to death women accused of adultery, savagely persecute Baha'is, Christians, Kurds and Sunnis, jails and brutalizes journalists and political opponents, supports Shiite militias in Iraq that are engaged in ethnic cleansing, bombed a Jewish community center in distant Argentina, and executes poets for "waging war on God" is being given the right to build a nuclear arsenal. Sure, it might take a decade before Iran builds its first bomb, provided the mullahs adhere to the nuclear agreement - which they won't - but why should that matter to any of us little folk as we go about our daily lives?

Weekly declarations from the mullahs calling for the annihilation of Israel? I suppose I should no longer believe what other people say. On the other hand, I was taught, back in the olden days, that when someone says he’s coming to kill you, you had best believe him. Silly me to have ever placed faith in this dictum! After all, President Obama, fluent in all dialects of Newspeak, knew enough to ignore the millions of Iranians crying "Death to America!" on al-Quds Day last week, and it's high time that I learn a thing or two from this grandmaster.

All of which is not to say that Obama is the "best in the business" of Newspeak. The "moderate" Hassan Rouhani, who has overseen soaring numbers of executions since becoming Iran's seventh president, is also no slouch. You will recall how he informed his countrymen in 2013 that he had lulled the West into complacency while radically expanding Iran's nuclear weapons development program, but Obama and the EU knew well enough not to take him at his word.

This in turn brings me to the title of this blog entry: Although no such trip is planned, why shouldn't Obama come to Tel Aviv to charm Israelis with his eloquence? Afterwards, visits to the cities of Cairo, Riyadh and Dubai would also go a long way toward building confidence in this "landmark" deal. Then, how about a final victory lap in Tehran (who cares if his effigy was burned there this past Friday)? Go for it Barack! Show us the true meaning of Change! Make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind!