By Leah Golembesky
SAN DIEGO — This morning via television coverage we witnessed a historic visit from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he addressed a joint session in Congress. Despite the controversy over his address Netanyahu received a warm welcome from the office of the Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner and was escorted by the house Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to the Congressional Chambers.
Netanyahu greeted everyone and thanked them for all their support of Israel and especially for the support during this last summer to defend their land. Congress had provided funding of an extra $225 million to support Iron Dome.
Unfortunately today the nation of Israel is facing an existential threat from a tyrannical enemy that has no other goal than that to annihilate the Jewish people and the state of Israel. This threat today comes from the same people who tried to annihilate the Jews in biblical times and is described in the story of the book of Esther. Historically called the Persians today this threat is known as Iran. Iran is today is a powerful country that sponsors terrorist groups throughout the Middle East and around the globe who violate human rights and are committed to not only the destruction of the Jewish State but to all of Western Civilization as we know it today. In ancient times the Persians used swords and horses in their attempt to conquer its enemies, today Iran is using advance technologies to attempt to build a nuclear weapons arsenal giving them unprecedented destructive capabilities.
Of course this is not new information, and most people, including members of Congress know that Iran is attempting to develop a nuclear arsenal. So the question is, why did Prime Minister Netanyahu come to Washington D.C. to speak out against the situation in Iran? Was it simply “political theater” prior to the Israeli elections just two weeks away? Perhaps he was just trying to save some airfare and kill two birds with one stone by speaking at the AIPAC conference the day before. Well the answer is quite simple and it is because The President of the United States is on the verge of signing an extremely dangerous agreement with Iran that will allow Iran to continue to enrich uranium on their way to developing nuclear weapons. The Prime Minister was simply looking for a platform to address the concerns that Israel has to this deal–a deal which, by the way, most members of Congress on both sides of the aisle oppose.
So the question is; was Prime Minster Netanyahu’s speech effective in outlining the dangers of a nuclear armed Iran? I for one certainly believe that it was. Here are some of the things the Prime Minister had to say today in his speech:
“Don’t be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn’t turn Iran into a friend of America. Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire first on the region and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire.”
“The difference is that ISIS is armed with butcher knives, captured weapons and YouTube, whereas Iran could soon be armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs.”
“To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen. But that, my friends, is exactly what could happen, if the deal now being negotiated is accepted by Iran. That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them.”
“Absent a dramatic change, we know for sure that any deal with Iran will include two major concessions to Iran. The first major concession would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure, providing it with a short break-out time to the bomb. Break-out time is the time it takes to amass enough weapons-grade uranium or plutonium for a nuclear bomb. According to the deal, not a single nuclear facility would be demolished. Thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium would be left spinning. Thousands more would be temporarily disconnected, but not destroyed.”
“Because Iran’s nuclear program would be left largely intact, Iran’s break-out time would be very short — about a year by U.S. assessment, even shorter by Israel’s.”
“Now we’re being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war. That’s just not true. The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal.”
My defense of Israel defines me as an American–one who wants to live in a free world and pass this freedom on to my children and future generations to come. The deal that the President of the United States wants to make with Iran threatens this very freedom not only inside Israel but also throughout the rest free world.
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Golembesky is a San Diegan active as a volunteer in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
Speaker Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu was meant as a poke in the eye of Pres. Obama, and Bibi promptly played along.
If Netanyahu seriously wanted to discuss American foreign policy, the person to see was Pres. Obama, as well as John Kerry. The latter is the one who carries the ball in the negotiations with Iran.
For Bibi the speech in Congress was just a political stunt. What’s more, he offered nothing new, nothing we haven’t heard from him before.
Let’s see how the Israeli voters react to this. – Peter Kubicek, Forest Hills, N.Y.