by Michael Freund, JPOST
Jerusalem Post
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.
Any deal with Iran is very dangerous to Israel. Even a deal that required Iran to ship every ounce of uranium and every centifruge out of the country and even strike the word nuclear from Iranian dictionaries, would still be very dangerous for Israel. This is because what Iran needs most is money. Iran needs money to save her country from economic collapse (and the monies she has received for just talking may have achieved this objective), and to fund her military efforts in all of their dimensions which includes a massive missile program, conventional weapons programs, aerial defense programs, funding terrorists, arming the terrorists surrounding Israel and building nuclear bombs. What a deal with Iran means is that the sanctions are lifted, Iran can fully restore and rebuild her economy and Iran will end up flush with money.
Iran may prefer to have nuclear weapons when she goes to war with Israel but in no way do her plans require nuclear weapons. The very bad deal that the US appears willing to make with Iran does carry an additional danger that a deal that ended Iran’s nuclear threat would not have, and that is the threat of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
All other things being equal, Iran would prefer to wait at least 5 – 10 years before “openly” developing a nuclear bomb. This time is necessary for Iran to fully restore her economy and to fully build up her military assets and those of her proxies encircling Israel. Iran would also prefer to wait to see if Israel can be coerced into surrendering Yehuda and Shomron, which would enable Iran to completely surround Israel with missile-laden terrorist proxies. Ominously, several years of “good” Iranian behaviour would further strengthen the diplomacy camp in Washington (and Jerusalem) and thus result in even more pressure on Israel to surrender Yehuda and Shomron. Additionally, after several years of good behavior, Iran also might be able to obtain sophisticated American weapons. Arguing against the 5 – 10 year wait, Iran would prefer to launch her war against Israel when Obama is still president, but the timeframes are very tight, and if Saudi Arabia, Egypt and perhaps Turkey begin nuclear bomb programs Iran may build her bombs sooner than she otherwise would have preferred.