President Obama has predictably ramped up the rhetoric as Congress nears a decision on the Iran nuclear deal, arguing that a vote against the deal is a vote FOR war with Iran, admonishing Congress to resist “the drumbeat of war.” Even for a president prone to hyperbole, this is a stunningly irresponsible assertion. But it also sheds light on how the Obama administration ended up agreeing to a deal that will immediately accelerate Iran’s quest for dominance in the Middle East while paving the way for them — the world’s most notorious state sponsor of terrorism — to develop the ultimate weapon of mass destruction.
Obama is unwilling to go to war under any circumstance, and everybody knows it. This fact has created an international power vacuum, emboldening those regimes bent on conquest and hegemony to openly defy the United States of America and directly threaten our allies and interests. Implied in the old adage “walk softly, but carry a big stick” is the willingness to use that stick, if provoked, to devastating effect. But Obama is the Neville Chamberlain of our time, thinking, I can only surmise, to justify his prematurely awarded Nobel Peace Prize by withdrawing America from the field.
How else can we explain a “deal” which infuses $100 billion into Iran’s coffers, grants it access to worldwide oil markets, sunsets arms embargos and lifts economic sanctions, all while allowing Iran to continue to enrich uranium, dodge United Nations inspections, openly affirm its extraterritorial ambitions and to renew its determination to wipe Israel off of the map? With this deal, Obama is not trying to prevent war with Iran or even prevent its acquisition of a nuclear weapon; he is washing his hands of the Middle East. No wonder our Israeli allies are apoplectic.
While his ministers wrung an entirely one-sided deal out of the hapless and hopeless Secretary of State John Kerry, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei published a 416-page book on how to isolate and destroy Israel. The book, titled “Palestine,” calls for sustained, low-intensity attacks on the Israeli people, crippling its economy, terrorizing its citizens and provoking seemingly disproportionate military responses that will further turn the international community against Israel. Khamenei reasons that ultimately the U.S. would withdraw support from Israel, that Israeli Jews would flee to Europe and America, and that eventually, most likely after reverting to a U.N. mandate for a time, a new single-state Palestine will emerge under Muslim rule.
Khamanei’s plan is not hypothetical. Iran is and has been aggressively pursuing this strategy for years, arming Hamas and Hezbollah with the rockets that routinely drive millions of Israelis into bomb shelters and cause billions of dollars in damage to the Israeli economy. Iran, through its terrorist surrogates, is at war with Israel. How can the Iran nuclear deal be seen as anything but a betrayal of our Jewish friends? When have we ever treated an ally so shamefully?
Retreating from the world in the name of peace will not bring peace but war. As Europe witnessed the fierce ambition of Hitler’s Germany, then England Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said, “How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks [in England] because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.” Today, with the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust within memory, Chamberlain’s words echo as a warning against peace-at-any-cost naiveté or cowardice. We should stand up to Iran now or risk facing a more powerful and dangerous Iran later. Congress should reject this deal and keep the sanctions in place.
Dan Liljenquist is a former state senator and former U.S. Senate candidate.