Michael Rubin raises an important point in the story of White House staffers insulting Prime Minister Netanyahu. He notes that an anonymous senior official is quoted as saying of Netanyahu:
...He's also a "coward" on the issue of Iran's nuclear threat. The official said the Obama administration no longer believes that Netanyahu would launch a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities in order to keep the regime in Tehran from building an atomic arsenal. "It's too late for him to do anything. Two, three years ago, this was a possibility. But ultimately he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger.
Here's the rub: back in 2010 and 2011, Netanyahu did not launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure and weapons laboratories in large part because the Obama administration had asked him repeatedly not to do so. So, first Obama makes a request of Netanyahu. Netanyahu acquiesces against his better judgment because Obama and his emissaries swear that the United States will never let Iran get nuclear weapons. Then, Obama seeks to strike a deal that effective reneges on that promise and has the audacity to have his senior aides ridicule Netanyahu for being a good ally and listening to Obama in the first place.
In addition, the quote from the unnamed official implies that it's too late for a military strike to stop the Iranian nuclear program. If that is so, it makes other news this week all the more ominous.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. and Iran are currently in a state of "detente," according to senior U.S. and Arab officials:
...[R]ecent months have ushered in a change as the two countries have grown into alignment on a spectrum of causes, chief among them promoting peaceful political transitions in Baghdad and Kabul and pursuing military operations against Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, according to these officials.
The Obama administration also has markedly softened its confrontational stance toward Iran's most important nonstate allies, the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the Lebanese militant and political organization, Hezbollah. American diplomats, including Secretary of State John Kerry , negotiated with Hamas leaders through Turkish and Qatari intermediaries during cease-fire talks in July that were aimed at ending the Palestinian group's rocket attacks on Israel, according to senior U.S. officials.
The Intermountain Jewish News cuts to the chase on Iran in its editorial last week:
It seems clear what the outcome of the current negotiations with Iran will be: To allow Iran to retain a threshold nuclear capacity. The US is not insisting that Iran close down its nuclear program. The US is not even favoring a bill in Congress to stiffen sanctions against Iran should these negotiations fail. They will fail, or will be further prolonged, which is the same thing, since Iran has ceded not a single point in these negotiations. Iran still insists on its right to a nuclear program sufficient to produce a nuclear bomb, and to deliver it. Basically, the US has not rejected the Iranian recalcitrance.
The only hope to stop Iran is the US Congress.
...As you decide who to vote for on the national level this year, we urge you to evaluate the candidates, above all else, on the Iran question.
