Did you watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on Tuesday to a joint session of Congress? It was a doozy, garnering front-page headlines across the nation. It seems everyone’s got an opinion, ranging from Netanyahu being all rhetoric and no action to other lauding him for telling it like it is.
So what’s yours?
His talk was full of clever turns of phrases, and here are a few that caught our attention. Did we pick the right ones, or did we miss some of his key points?
BEST QUOTE OF THE MORNING: "Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand." #NetanyahuSpeech
— IJN (@IJN_Colorado) March 3, 2015
Bibi: For the first time in generations, we the Jewish people can defend ourselves. #NetanyahuSpeech
— IJN (@IJN_Colorado) March 3, 2015
Alternative to this bad deal is not war, but a better deal. "A deal we may not like, but with which we could live, literally."
— IJN (@IJN_Colorado) March 3, 2015
Bibi: "If Irans wants to be treated like a normal country it must act like a normal country." #NetanyahuSpeech
— IJN (@IJN_Colorado) March 3, 2015
We also noticed a decidedly literary theme to the speech, from the use of alliteration to allusions to Frost and Hemingway. Seems like the PM has an English major on staff!
Nice Hemingway reference: This deal won't be a Farewell to Arms, it is a farewell to arms control. #NetanyahuSpeech
— IJN (@IJN_Colorado) March 3, 2015
In his address to our Congress, in 1941, Winston Churchill said “The price of greatness is responsibility”… Bibi believes that a Nuclear Iran will result in a marriage with terrorism : threatening the survival of Israel, peace in the Middle East, Europe and ultimately, the USA. America cannot escape it’s responsibility, to seek International Security. Prime Minister Netanyahu stressed that Israel’s security is not a Partisan issue. The threat is Global and His case is very compelling.
He was more polite to Obama than I as an American citizen would have been. He makes obvious points. The fact is that negotiation has never, to my knowledge succeeded in dealing with arms control. And as the events since the speech have demonstrated, he was correct about Obama.
Unfortunately, being correct is not enough. Iran has ICBMs. They will have the bomb soon because Obama will not stop them.
Negotiations with the Soviet Union and Russia has elements of success, but that’s very different from Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. The biggest danger is that once Iran’s neighbors see that the US is okaying Iran’s development of nuclear capability, they’ll all want in too.