Rant #1,389: Let's Stop Being Bibis About It

Short and sweet: I found nothing at all wrong with Benjamin Netanyahu's speech yesterday.

This is a tense time in our world, with factions declaring war on everything that is sacred to us.

Yet we do not live with a major threat, or threats, to our existence each and every minute of the day as Israel does.

We cannot possibly understand what they go through, with enemies all around them, countries and factions that are not only looking to rid the earth of the Jewish State, but obliterate all Jews from this planet.

With the U.S. trying to broker a deal to give Iran the capacity to house nuclear weapons, Israel's ears pricked up high.

Even though Israel and the U.S. are likethis as partners for democracy, that does not mean we can't disagree with their policies and they can't disagree with our policies.

And Israel staunchly disagrees with our policy on this one.

It feels that you are not only giving one of its enemies nuclear weapons that can be used to rid the world of the Jewish State, you are also giving it the capacity to use those very weapons against the free world.

So Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, came to our shores to address Congress, but the problem was that he did it at the invite of House Speaker John Boehner, not of the President of the United States.

Yes, this broke long-standing protocol, but with the current administration in place, perhaps it was time to break that protocol.

President Obama has been a do-nothing President when it comes to Israel. We have been slow to see that Israel is constantly under attack, it backs a Palestinian state (not a new direction for our country, but it continues in even a more heated way with this administration), and its policies don't lend itself to Israel or Jews in general--whether many Jews realize it or not.

So yes, protocol was broken, and yes, perhaps it was done to make the President and his supporters in Congress look bad.

And if that was the case, it succeeded pretty well.

But looking beyond that, Bibi, as he affectionately is known, delivered a powerful speech, while at the same time going out of his way to say that he wasn't going to knock the President.

He said that Israel continues to cherish the relationship it has with the U.S., but even brothers in arms can have disagreements, and this is one of those quarrels.

Providing Iran the means the have nuclear weapons is a bad deal, he said, because it not only directly threatens Israel's security, but also the safety of the free world.

That basically summarizes what he said, but I can't say it as eloquently as he did, nor will I try to do that.

And I do believe that people listened, even those that were against such a speech and the way it was set up.

Sure, there were many Democrats in Congress who did not show up to hear the speech, and really, shame on them. However this thing was set up, this is a head of state, and they should be ashamed of themselves for not being there.

Republicans, of course, applauded everything Bibi had to say, and the Democrats who were there--who I give kudos to for putting their own personal reservations on the back burner--were a bit less enthusiastic, but gave Bibi the proper respect he deserves.

While Bibi was making his speech, the U.S. was still trying to broker a deal with Iran. Word is that the original deal that the U.S. proposed was rejected by Iran, but the process continues, and perhaps a deal will be worked out.

But to me, it is like giving the class bully a pea shooter, and telling him not to use it. You just know that the bully will be tempted, and will eventually use that pea shooter to hit someone he doesn't like.

By giving Iran this nuclear weapon capacity, you just know it is not going to sit on top of it and not use it.

And it could turn around and use it on Israel or any of its other neighbors in the Middle East.

Netanyahu simply wanted to make his points clear to Congress and the American people, including American Jews, who, I am sorry to say, often believe they are immune to any outside threats because they are Americans.

I am one of those American Jews who doesn't agree with that belief, and I think that Netanyahu did an excellent job in communicating the point that this is a threat that cannot be taken likely.

Whether he did it for his own poltical gain or not is really a moot subject; what he had to say was important, and whether his visit and speech were sanctioned by the White House really isn't important.

What was important is what he had to say about the U.S., Iran and Israel, and he did it with authority and aplomb, and his speech, perhaps, served as a wakeup call to people who believe that we--Jew and non-Jew alike--are immune to the goings on in the Middle East.

We aren't, and a deal with Iran is a "bad deal" any way you look at it.