Bibi Unbowed

Any time the name Netanyahu comes up, the bell rings and somebody has to take a shot; this time it is Sen. Diane Feinstein.

Jack Engelhard

OpEds Jack Engelhard
Jack Engelhard
צילום: מתוך האתר האישי

This is like a contest. Everybody gets to throw a dart to see who will be first to make Bibi buckle and drop.

The topic, naturally, is Iran, and the deal Bibi won’t buy because what’s good for Iran cannot be good for Israel.

Iran gets to keep its ICBM program, according to a framework that had John Kerry pleased with himself as he left Tehran with the ayatollahs laughing behind his back. All that remains is for Bibi to join the celebration in what is surely the dumbest gamble of the century.

Iran gets to keep the dice, the chips and the casino.

Relax, says President Obama. But when Soviet missiles in Cuba threatened our own security, we reacted with alarm. More on this in a moment.

So far Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel is standing tall. It’s Bibi against the world. 

There appears to be a rule to this game.Any time the name Netanyahu comes up, the bell rings and somebody has to take a shot, and here on a Sunday Talk Show we find Sen. Dianne Feinstein proclaiming, “I wish he [Bibi] would contain himself” (about speaking up).

There’s a touch of nostalgia about the California Senator’s lament. As if she wishes to say that she longs for the good old days when Jews knew their place.

Some people can’t get over the fact that those days are gone.

Atop the heaps of the ghettos, a Jewish State has risen. Sorry to break the news, but at least in Israel, Jews now have a voice, a vote, and a destiny and when shoved they have the means, often the chutzpah, to shove back. Get used to it!  For the facts and drama about this story, read this.

On other talk shows, we heard this from Leftists who cackled, “Well Netanyahu hasn’t had much success solving the Palestinian situation.” Okay, Juan Williams – now tell us how much success we’ve had solving our own differences between the Races across more than 200 years.

Bibi, for all his imperfections (yes, the building freezes, the prisoner exchanges) has been absolutely heroic during this torrent of abuse, much of it aimed at him personally. The Left, which tried to topple him until the last vote was counted, still won’t forgive him for winning the election, so they keep needling him -- together with the entire Jewish State.

Denis McDonough drew a standing ovation from J-Street when he declared: “An occupation that lasted more than 50 years must end.” Therefore, according to the White House Chief of Staff, everything belongs to the same type of people scorching the earth and that last week slaughtered 150 Christians in Kenya. 

What’s it all about? It’s about diminishing the Jewish State, if not by the power of arms or even politics, then by the power of insult.

President Obama thinks Bibi is being silly for demanding that before any nuclear deal gets cut, Iran must accept Israel’s sovereignty.

Obama calls that “a fundamental misjudgment.”

In other words, the United States is preparing a Separate Peace with a country, Iran, whose entire foreign policy begins with dreams to destroy Israel.

When Russian missiles were at our doorstep, from Cuba, the United States was prepared to destroy mankind unless those missiles were removed. Adlai Stevenson, JFK’s UN envoy at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, refused to be tricked by the Kremlin’s denials. Stevenson demanded a yes or no from his Soviet counterpart and was willing to wait for an answer “until hell freezes over.”

Bibi faces the same quandary and urgency. His language may be in Hebrew, but it’s the same defiance and the same answer.
