Last Tuesday, we woke up to a different world.
We woke up to the moment when history will most likely point an accusing finger at this date, the moment that will be pinpointed as the dangerous shift in modern nuclear warfare.
This deal with Iran? It’s a great deal . . . for Iran.
Not for the rest of the world.
Certainly not for Israel or Sunni Muslims in the Middle East.
It was a deal struck with the devil, the devil of Shiite Jihad.
Well played, Iran. Well played.
Instead of the haunted Biblical hand of “Mene Mene Takel Upharsin” (“Writing is on the Wall”), it seems that Iran, old Persia, has just been more empowered and emboldened.
Obama says, “the world has become safer,” and I wonder whether this phrase will become our era’s equivalent of Chamberlain’s illusory “peace in our time,” which infected the world after the Munich Agreement.
The truth is, I was not against negotiating with Iran. I thought the sanctions were important and effective, and that they could lead to strong negotiations with the US, Israel and other leading countries. The process of negotiations in and of itself is somewhat neutral. As Bibi has often said, it was a matter of negotiating a good deal, not a bad deal. Preventing the possibility of war in taking the path of negotiations is indeed risky, fraught with high stakes.
Yet the stakes and hurt of war eclipse those fears and anxieties. In knowing that one has at least tried to take the moral, pragmatic, human path, in knowing one did everything to try to prevent even one innocent casualty of war, one can live with oneself, knowing that peaceful options were tried before war was waged.
I just finished reading Daniel Gordis’ book Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul. Looking back, there were plenty of skeptics (myself included) who not only felt that making a treaty with Egypt was a stupid move, but also a betrayal.
To be sure, it was a great risk. The test of time has proven it was a risk worth taking. It has so far been a peace, albeit a cold peace, but a peace nonetheless. It has endured 36 years so far.
A part of me wants to believe that this deal with Iran that was signed sealed and delivered in Vienna this week, primarily led by Obama and the US, is similar in climate and effect to Begin’s deal with Sadat.
A part of me wants to believe that this negotiation was not so horrible after all, but a scary yet positive change; that, over time, it, like the treaty between Israel and Egypt, will prove to have been a wise decision.
A part of me wants to believe that the people in favor of the agreement who characterize those who oppose it as simply hysterical in their reaction are right.
Unfortunately though, instead of de-escalating a conflict, supposedly Obama’s intention, this deal feels like the first formal step toward the gateway to a nuclear world in the hands of lunatic mullahs.
It can be argued that in the short term the merit of this agreement lies not in disarmament but in buying time, so that as Iran’s nuclear program is slowed down and Iran becomes part of the community of nations, it will change and eventually learn to engage with the world in a constructive and diplomatic way.
Which might be the case — if we weren’t talking about nefarious Iran, whose sole goal is terror and domination, as the Iranian leadership itself explicitly says.
Just last week, in the throes of negotiations, came Iran’s “Al Quds Day.” Its theme was the destruction of Israel, as well as the burning of Obama in effigy. Think America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade devoted to articulating dreams of murder, destruction and world domination.
Naively, I read somewhere that one American government official said that now that the deal is struck, it would be a great humanitarian gesture for Iran to release its three American hostages as a way of expressing Iran’s re-entry into the community of nations.
I did a double take when I read that. To Iran, its re-entry into the community of nations will mean one thing and one thing only: the purchase of deadly weapons on a monumental scale to bolster its proxy terror regimes of Hezbollah and Syria, now that sanctions are lifted and a ton of cash is being funneled its way.
There are three American hostages in Iran — and this wasn’t even a part of the negotiation? What? Releasing these American hostages should have been a sina qua non. The sanctions that strangled Iran worked. Iran was desperate. That is the only reason it came to the negotiating table. The P5+1 had the upper hand. What’s so frustrating is that it seems that a good deal, or at least a far better deal, could have been extracted.
The phrase “anywhere, anytime” has proven to be a joke. Inspections with a 24-day advance notice? Why even bother with such a farce of an “inspection”? The whole point of verification is an unexpected visit. Excuse me, but a 24-day procedure is not an inspection, but an appointment with a nuclear terrorist whose weapons or nuclear facility (as small as one room) has been effectively camouflaged. The reality is that this agreement enables Iran to reach a threshold capacity of nuclear weapons.
I wonder about some of the unintended consequences of the negotiation. Saudi Arabia and Israel are talking? Interesting. Perhaps this deal will create new alliances between Sunni Muslims and Israel. Who knows.
What I do know is that tiny little Israel has not wanted to follow the military option. This is not 1981. It is obvious that aside from the human cost, a military operation endeavoring to destroy Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will be tough, if not impossible. Even if successful, it would only set Iran back a few years.
A strong negotiation with desperate Iran yielding a good deal for America, Israel and the world was the window of opportunity that just closed. The genie is now out of the bottle. That is a scary thought.
I wonder what kind of world Obama and the leaders who are hailing this as a success envision? What kind of world to they have in mind when the criteria for rejoining the community of nations are so pathetically low. Just temporarily suspend your centrifuges and bombs that could kill on an unheard of scale, and voila! You are back in the groove, doing business with the rest of the world. What about expecting and demanding real behavioral and political change?
Bottom line: When Iran, Assad, Hezbollah and Hamas are jumping for joy, that’s all you need to know. Indeed, we did wake up to a new world. Welcome to the new nuke arms race.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
