Nowhere Man

This is a very hard blog post for me to write. I have agonized over this for a very long time and even now, as I sit down to write, I am almost at a loss for words. Let me start off by saying that I have been duped by our President. It pains me to say this, but it is, unfortunately true. As many of my friends know, I have been a steadfast supporter of President Obama from day one. I feel that from a domestic standpoint, he has done almost all of the right things, and I still stand firmly behind all of the amazing progress that we have seen in America. From health care reform to marriage equality, we are definitely living in an amazing and historic time which I hope will long be remembered for all the good we have done.

However, when it comes to the rest of the world, our President has failed miserably. I can only blame him for the very cold relationship that the administration has with Israel and I not only blame him for the disaster that is the Iran agreement, I am furious with him for what he has done. First off, a little background. I have always known that Obama was not keen on Netanyahu. To be honest, I really did not care. The relationship between the US and Israel is as strong today as it has always been. I truly believe that in the end, it really does not matter what the President says, but Israel will remain our one true ally in the Middle East, and this bond will never break. Just look to our military and you will see how true this is. All of the top brass of the military are friends of Israel and if you look at some of the statements coming from there, you will see what is really happening. Much of the cooperation between our countries is played out between our militaries, and the connection will always be strong. So when Obama wanted to act like a baby in terms of Netanyahu (and vice versa, by the way!) I just ignored it all.

I still hold to these beliefs. No matter who the President will be, out two countries will always be as close as they are. However, appearances sometimes matter. Public opinion can often be swayed by the actions of our President, and I think that is the case today. In February, a Gallop poll showed that about 70 percent of Americans looked upon Israel favorably, down from 72 percent one year earlier. Now that is actually a great statistic, however, it has hovered in the 60% – 70% range through Obama’s presidency. Certainly not the lowest in the past two decades (that honor goes to the first George Bush) but certainly not the highest (Reagan and Clinton). However, the more telling statistic is when people were asked if they sympathized more with the Israelis or the Palestinians, 83% of Republicans said Israelis while only 48% of the Democrats said Israelis. Again, not the lowest (also again the end of the first George Bush’s term) but not the highest (again, Reagan and Clinton). I think it is the perception from the President that causes the Democrat numbers to fall, and at this point they are continuing to fall. For this, I definitely blame President Obama.

To top this off, comes the fiasco of the Iran deal with the so called P5+1 (US, Russia, China, UK, France, and Germany). The president has pushed this deal through which is perhaps the worst deal ever seen. It does nothing to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons in the long term. Perhaps it keeps the bomb from them in the coming year, but there is nothing to prevent it from happening soon after. First off, there is the issue of inspection. How can we expect to keep Iran to comply with the deal if we have to give them 24 days’ notice before coming in to inspect. 24 days Iran will have to clean up nuclear sites prior to inspection! If Iran breaks the deal, sanctions don’t automatically start again. There has to be more committees and discussions. Sanctions are what has brought Iran to the table. Iran is feeling the pain from sanctions, and these sanctions are the only real deterrent we have right now (outside of war). If Iran knew that sanctions would start again immediately upon breaking the deal, it might not break it! Furthermore, if Iran does break the deal, they will be VERY close to getting the bomb! Everything they have to now will still be there waiting for them to use. Finally, how much of all the money that will be available to them will find its way to terrorists!

Ultimately, this deal is a disaster, to America and certainly to Israel. A nuclear Iran brings an arms race to the Middle east, and perhaps ultimately, to the entire world. Mutually assured destruction was perhaps the one doctrine that kept the tense peace through the cold war, but I am not certain it will work the same way in the Middle East. Just imagine Hamas or Hezbollah with a small yield nuclear bomb!

I don’t know how this will finally play out, but I can say this. It is important that we all contact our senators and congressional representatives and ask them to vote this deal down. President Obama had to agree to Congressional oversight for this deal. So once it is sent to congress, they will have 60 days to debate and vote. If both houses vote to disapprove the deal, they will send a joint resolution to the President, which he has said he would veto. Should that happen it will go back to congress and if both houses can muster a two-thirds majority to override the veto, then the President will have to continue sanctions against Iran and the deal will fall apart. In order for this to happen we need to lobby our representatives. Call or write your Senators and Congressmen and implore them to vote against this disastrous deal.

Not wanting to leave off with such a downer, take a look at this fun commercial from bezeq, Israel’s phone company (like Verizon):

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFksS3ry7SY