Barack H. Chamberlain and Iran by Michael Freund,
http://www.michaelfreund.org/16033/obama-iran
If several alarming media reports are true, US President Barack Obama
is moving perilously closer to a nuclear deal with Iran that will
endanger Israel and all of Western civilization.
Far away from the glare of the cameras, it appears that the
commander-in-chief and his colleagues are swiftly caving in to the
ayatollahs, hoping to buy some short-term quiet by allowing Iran to
remain a threshold nuclear state.
In a chilling exclusive filed on Tuesday, the Associated Press
revealed that Washington and Tehran “are discussing a compromise that
would let Iran keep much of its uranium-enriching technology but
reduce its potential to make nuclear weapons.”
Under the proposal, the US would retreat from its previous demand that
Iran dismantle most of its 10,000 centrifuges and allow the mullahs to
keep them if they agree to reconfigure the equipment to produce a
smaller amount of uranium.
This is a frighteningly naïve idea because should the Iranians decide
to renege on the deal at any point in the future, they would still
have a “breakout capacity” that would leave them poised just a few
months away from the nuclear finish line.
As the AP story noted, “Experts warn that any reduction in centrifuge
efficiency is reversible more quickly than a straight decrease in the
number of machines.”
In other words, such a deal would be like permitting a violent
offender to keep his gun and his ammunition, but telling him sternly
not to load the chamber.
This proposal is said to be similar to one that Iran itself made last
year but which the US and its allies rejected at the time because they
would not tolerate allowing the Iranians to have more than 2,500
centrifuges.
But with the approach of a March deadline in the negotiations, it
seems that Obama is now willing to agree to the very same demand that
even he was unwilling to countenance just a year ago.
This is nothing less than folly of the highest order, and it is
difficult to overstate the danger involved.
For even if the ayatollahs commit themselves to limits on the amount
of enriched uranium they will produce with their many centrifuges,
does anyone really think they will abide by their commitments?
Consider the following: Since July 31, 2006, the United Nations
Security Council has adopted no fewer than six resolutions demanding
that the Iranians “suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing
activities, including research and development.”
Most of these resolutions were adopted under Chapter VII of the UN
Charter, which means they are legally binding on Iran and all UN
member states.
Nonetheless, Iran has violated every single one of them. They have
added more centrifuges, continued with their nuclear research and
development, and persisted in enriching uranium.
And now, the Obama administration is willing to allow Tehran to
violate the UN Security Council resolutions which Washington itself
supported.
What message does this send to the ayatollahs? Simple enough: if you
dither and delay, disregard and disobey, eventually the West will give
in.
If that is not textbook appeasement, then what is? Indeed, last
Friday, Israel’s Channel 10 quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials as
saying that Obama “has given the Iranians 80 percent of what they
want” in the nuclear talks.
And according to a report on Tuesday morning on IDF radio, European
officials have told their Israeli counterparts that the US is willing
to allow Iran to keep a larger number of centrifuges in exchange for
their promise to keep things quiet in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan
and Syria.
The European officials added that in recent weeks, the Obama
administration had agreed to take a “large step” in Iran’s direction
out of a desire for some regional quiet, even if it means that
Tehran’s centrifuges will continue to spin away.
If the above proves accurate – and we will find out soon enough – it
will mark a watershed moment in modern history.
It will mean that until the end of time, Iran will always be “on the
brink” of having atomic weapons, able at short notice to join the
nuclear club and threaten Israel, neighboring Arab states, Europe and
America.
And that is why it is so essential the Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu travel to Washington early next month to speak to Congress
and warn the American people of the danger of appeasing Iran.
More than 70 years ago, Franklin Delano Roosevelt refused to bomb the
train tracks to Auschwitz, thereby failing to stop the mass slaughter
of our people.
Now, Barack Obama seems equally disinclined to stop the ayatollahs’
march toward building a nuclear Auschwitz, with all that might entail.
If the American president does agree to a feeble deal with Iran, he
might as well sign his name at the bottom as “Barack H. Chamberlain.”
But while his legacy will merely be tarnished, our future and that of
America too will permanently be at risk. That is a message that the
American people need to hear. And no one is better suited to deliver
it than our premier.
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