Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations today was a very polite and diplomatic lecture to the President Of The United States. He instructed President Obama on methodology of international negotiations when confronted by a serious and capable enemy such as Iran. Netanyahu seems to be one of the rare, if perhaps the only world leader, capable of commanding respect from a podium through forthrightness, clarity, and an inescapable quality usually referred to as Leadership.
First, Netanyahu explained to Obama what the enemy really is.
“Rouhani doesn’t sound like Ahmadinejad, but when it comes to Iran’s nuclear weapons program, the only difference between them is this: Ahmadinejad was a wolf in wolf’s clothing, Rouhani is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community,”
. . . . Netanyahu keeps it simple. He understands that he is addressing a novice, and therefore he takes great care in the employment of an easily understood analogy. He also knows that we all know, he doesn’t mean, “of the international community.” He means the President, since the President is the only relevant holder of the power to be fooled.
Netanyahu then tells Obama not to ease the sanctions on Iran in very clear, unambiguous terms.
“Don’t let up the pressure. The only deal that could be made with Rouhani is one which fully dismantles Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”
. . . . He evidently believes that Obama is about to be taken advantage of by Rouhani. Netanyahu throws a little facile logic at the President,
“Why would Iran defy Security Council resolutions bringing dire sanctions on its economy if it weren’t building a bomb?”
. . . . He is trying hard to educate with simple to understand elements. He knows the Iranian people are struggling financially. Their economy and their standards of living have been destroyed by the sanctions. The only ones getting rich are the Ayatollahs and Mullahs. To make sure that Obama is listening, Netanyahu adds,
“I want there to be no confusion on this point. Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. Yet in standing alone, Israel will know that we will be defending many, many others.”
. . . . Of everything Netanyahu said to Obama, this unequivocal manifest, delivered with bold confidence, means that he holds little trust that Obama will do the right thing. He witnessed the Administration’s preceding disastrous forays into the Middle East, leaving a trail of chaos and resentment from Libya, to Egypt, and to Syria. Now Netanyahu is laying his own red line in the sand. This line is intended much more for Obama than it is for the Iranian leadership, since the Ayatollahs who control Iran already know how Israel feels, and don’t need its help.
As Netanyahu witnesses a bungling Administration leading a rapprochement with fearsome and deceptive foes, he makes his case as loudly and clearly as he can. Israel will not allow a nuclear armed Iran.
“Now good luck with your negotiating, Barack and John. But don’t sucked-in and don’t screw it up or hell is coming.”
A constituent of the vast baby boomer generation with a career which has been fortunate to know the ponderous corporate worlds, as well as the intimately pressurized, and invigorating entrepreneurial domains of high tech and venture capital, I have harvested my share of mistakes meandering through corridors of enterprise from Silicon Valley, to London and endless, colourful, sometimes praetorian points in between. The voyage has provided an abundance of fodder for a pen yielding to an inquisitive keyboard, a foraging mind, and a passionate spirit.
Whether political or business or social or economic or personal, is it not all political? It is a privilege to write, and an even greater privilege to be read by anyone, and sometimes with the wind at my back the writing may occasionally be legible. I do not write to invite scorn, nor to invite respect, but if I get really lucky the writing can stimulate thinking. I also write for the very selfish purpose of animating my own processes, and engaging the best of what life offers. Above all, whether biting fire or swatting shadows, I am grateful to be gifted the freedom to write and publish whatever flows down to the keyboard. To all those who enabled this freedom, and to all those standing guard to preserve it, I am indebted.