Bibi and the Iranian Bomb

When he campaigned for the presidency, Barack Obama promised that he would (a) talk to any dictator without precondition, and (b) take a more multilateral approach to foreign policy than his predecessor.  Faced with the most important foreign policy issue of our time- the Iranian nuclear program- president Obama has shown that he is willing to talk to dictators, but will shut down the voices of our key allies, especially the one ally that has real skin in the game.

The White House threw an absolute hissy fit over Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's address before Congress last week and acted as a six year old that sticks his fingers in his ears and hums to drown out every single word.

That Prime Minister Netanyahu isn't in a full fledged panic is a testament to his self restraint.  He is faced with a regime that has vowed on several occasions to "wipe his country off the map," and has repeatedly defied international pressure to halt the means to do so.  Most troubling for him, he has been repeatedly snubbed by this Administration, told he must roll back his borders to the pre-1967 borders, all while asking nothing of substance from the Palestinians.  And now he is being told by President Obama, "Trust me.  I guarantee if it's a deal I've signed off on, it's the best way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb."

Right.

What does Bibi have to go on to convince him that Obama's assessments are correct and that his negotiating tactics produce satisfactory results?

•  Pushed the "reset button" after Russia's invasion of Georgia and promised "more flexibility" after the 2012 election on nuclear matters. Putin responded by ramping up military modernization and invaded the Ukraine.  Next, the White House dismissed Russia as a "regional power acting out of weakness" in its incursion of the Ukraine.  Today, Russia threatens the Baltics and is carrying out simulated attacks on NATO ships.
  
• Dismissed ISIS as the JV team and declared them not to be Islamic (see link to Atlantic article to the contrary) (http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980) .  Today, ISIS controls huges swaths of land in the Middle East and is now linking up with Boco Haram in North Africa.   It continues unabated on its orgy of murder and mayhem and is now on a campaign to destroy irreplaceable historical artifacts that are part of the birth of human civilization.

• Labeled Assad a "reformer" before he used chemical weapons on his own people, and did nothing after that self declared red line was crossed. 

• Without asking anything from the Castros, reversed unilaterally and without debate, moved to restore diplomatic ties with Cuba and declared that ""What I know deep in my bones is that when you have done the same thing for 50 years and nothing has changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome."  Cuba immediately responded by delivering a list of its demands on us.

Worse, in an unstable country (which instability the US facilitated), we demonstrated that we could not even provide adequate security FOR OUR OWN PEOPLE.   Can we blame Bibi for wondering whether an Obama deal with Iran will be adequate to protect HIS people if we will not do what is necessary to protect our own?

Netanyahu raised substantive legitimate issues - leaving infrastructure in place, inadequacy of monitoring and a sunset provision.   Obama, in his response, dismissed the entire speech out of hand and addressed none of these issues.

In yesterday's New York Times, we learned that even the French don't like the terms of this deal.  The French?  The French are advocating a tougher stand?

Yet Obama continues to run after the mullahs like a lovestruck teenage girl.  

In each case---Russia, Cuba, and now Iran, Obama's opening move was a huge concession with no quid pro quo.  With Russia, he scuttled missile defense in Eastern Europe.  With Cuba, he opened diplomatic ties.  With Iran, he loosened sanctions.  All in the hopes that these tyrants would be nice and reasonable.

The results have been predictable....and frightening.

Bibi and the Israeli people should be scared out of their wits.