Well, I never doubted for a moment that Netanyahu would deliver a powerful and rousing speech to Congress. (As I’m sure most Israelis would agree, he’s far more eloquent in English than in Hebrew.)
He even managed to say some nice things about Obama and his support for Israel at crucial moments, some of which “might never be known, because it touches on some of the most sensitive and strategic issues that arise between an American president and an Israeli prime minister.”
But he was unsparing in his criticism of what he believes to be an impending agreement between the US and Iran that would put Iran on the path to obtaining nuclear weapons.
Two points:
–I don’t agree with the conventional wisdom that an agreement with Iran is imminent or inevitable.
–Obviously, as the Obama administration says, no deal is better than a bad deal. But even with tightened sanctions, no deal would leave Iran free to pursue its nuclear program without any oversight or restrictions. As a result, the only alternative to stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons might be a military operation. But there’s no guarantee that even the most powerful bunker buster bombs could stop it entirely. And who knows what kind of retaliation an attack would provoke.
So what’s the alternative? I didn’t hear an answer to that in Netanyahu’s speech.
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Update: If you want an idea of the political insanity surrounding Netanyahu’s speech in the US, it seems some conservatives are criticizing Senator Rand Paul for not applauding enthusiastically enough.
What'd ya think of the #NetanyahuSpeech, Rand? http://t.co/vFjhUADQQf pic.twitter.com/4yPBcga7NI
— National Review (@NRO) March 3, 2015
