Netanyahu and Congress

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be addressing a joint session of congress this week. Most of the reactions to this event have been misguided, at least in my opinion. The president is worried about whether the invitation was meant to undermine his authority. The democrats are concerned whether sitting in on the speech will signal a rift in the party. The Israeli Press is concerned whether the move will further isolate Israel. The American Press is concerned about how it will affect future elections.

I believe the most important thing is being missed in most of the coverage. I see the same thing happen in other situations not nearly as heady as world politics. People forget who their friends are. After they stop behaving friendly toward these friends, they lose them and the benefits of their friendship. The final step is their world tilts out of balance, and they stand around scratching their heads wondering how it ever came to be so bad. But remember, it started out with them forgetting who their friends were.

What is happening with Israel and the US, is that some of our leaders have forgotten who our friends are. If we stay on the course we are on, we will soon see the world tilt out of balance. The resulting new world will likely result in nuclear proliferation, war in the Middle East, and the acceleration of terrorism.

But this scenario is different, in that Netanyahu is not blind to the outcomes. He is taking bold action to head off these probable results, or at least to try. Of course, like any friendship, he cannot do it alone.

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Iran Nuclear Agreement

Iran has been working to become a nuclear power for a long time. I assume it knows this process would be slow and receive resistance from world powers. Attempting to stop this grab for power, many countries, including the US, have instituted strict sanctions against the country. These sanctions have been successful in causing pain, and Iran is seeking relief from them.

Secretary of State John Kerry has negotiated a deal, along with other nations, to acquire promises Iran would limit its enrichment of nuclear material to reactor grade material, and the supply of material they have which is stronger than that would be destroyed. In exchange for this they will receive $4.2 billion. Please note that according to the deal they have achieved a supply of nuclear material 4 times stronger than needed for nuclear power and almost strong enough to make a nuclear bomb.

There is bipartisan congressional support for renewing sanctions against Iran though, and likely they will get a law ready for a presidential signature. Obama is trying to halt this action and has said. “Unprecedented sanctions and tough diplomacy helped to bring Iran to the negotiating table, and I’m grateful to our partners in Congress who share our goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Imposing additional sanctions now will only risk derailing our efforts to resolve this issue peacefully, and I will veto any legislation enacting new sanctions during the negotiation.”

History speaks strongly against this deal. If Iran was going to abide by its agreements or international law, it would not have strongly enriched nuclear material to dispose of in the first place. Predictably we will see a continuation of Iran’s past behavior of hiding what they are doing. When the truth is finally discovered we will find out our economic support payments actually funded their efforts to become a nuclear power