In a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "In appealing to Congress, Netanyahu places a dicey political bet," Jackson Diehl today concludes:
"If Netanyahu is defeated, U.S.Israeli relations may return swiftly to comity, as happened after the 1999 and 1992 elections. If the election produces a centrist coalition of the Likud and Labor parties, tensions might also drop. But if Netanyahu succeeds in breaking the past pattern and forms another right-wing coalition, an alliance that has been the heart of American engagement in the Middle East will, like the U.S. relationship with Iran, be headed toward an upheaval."
Yes, Netanyahu is a political animal, but the Iranian nuclear threat transcends politics. And although Senator Dianne Feinstein can call Netanyahu "arrogant" and declare that he does not speak for her as a Jew, he will be speaking for me before Congress at a time when Obama is putting the pieces in place for a second holocaust. Moreover, if Feinstein believes that the Israeli Labor Party, should it come to power, will ignore the Iranian threat in the years to come, she is sorely mistaken.
Before proclaiming other people's arrogance, Feinstein might wish to consider taking the time to read Ray Takeyh's Washington Post opinion piece, also of today's date, entitled "The strategic genius of Iran’s supreme leader." Takeyh, born in Tehran and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes:
"Khamenei is also a first-rate strategic genius who is patiently negotiating his way to a bomb.
After years of defiance, Khamenei seems to appreciate that his most advantageous path to nuclear arms is through an agreement.
. . . .
As Khamenei presses toward an accord that will place him in an enviable nuclear position, he can also be assured that technical violations of his commitments would not be firmly opposed. Once a deal is transacted, the most essential sanctions against Iran will evaporate. It is unlikely that Europeans, much less China or Russia, would agree to their reconstitution should Iran be caught cheating. And as far as the use of force is concerned, the United States has negotiated arms-control compacts for at least five decades and has never used force to punish a state that has incrementally violated its treaty obligations."
Then there is also today's declaration by the director general of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano:
"The Agency is not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."
Obama doesn't know all of this? Of course he does. The man is a radical, who, nearing the end of his presidency, is prepared to shed any pretense of moderation. Remarkably, 81-year-old Feinstein, blinded by partisanship and age, continues to march in lockstep behind him, singing hosannas.
