Israel Matzav

Charles Krauthammer on Obama's 'meeting with the enemy'

In Friday's Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer shows how Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama is all wrong about meeting with enemies. He explains why what Obama is proposing is completely different from Nixon going to China. He points out that Obama has misread history if he thinks that Roosevelt or Truman met with enemies at Yalta or Potsdam - Stalin was an ally at the time. And he points out that Kennedy's meeting with Khrushchev in Vienna - the only meeting that might compare with Obama meeting with Ahmadinejad - was a pointed disaster.

But then Krauthammer gets to the real issue: What a meeting between 'President Obama' and Ahmadinejad might look like. And that's the scariest part of all. (Article also available here).

A meeting with Ahmadinejad would not just strengthen and vindicate him at home, it would instantly and powerfully ease the mullahs' isolation, inviting other world leaders to follow. And with that would come a flood of commercial contracts, oil deals, diplomatic agreements -- undermining the very sanctions and isolation that Obama says he would employ against Iran.

As every seasoned diplomat knows, the danger of a summit is that it creates enormous pressure for results. And results require mutual concessions. That is why conditions and concessions are worked out in advance, not on the scene.

What concessions does Obama imagine Ahmadinejad will make to him on Iran's nuclear program? And what new concessions will Obama offer? To abandon Lebanon? To recognize Hamas? Or perhaps to squeeze Israel?

I wonder if anyone at Obama's 'town meeting' in Boca Raton this week thought to ask how Obama envisioned a meeting between himself and Ahmadinejad. It would have been interesting to hear his response. This is as close as anyone apparently got.

Mr. Obama sought to allay concerns about his willingness to engage in direct talks with foreign leaders, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. A woman in the audience asked Mr. Obama what he would say to the Iranian president if he held such a meeting.

“I will do everything in my power from allowing Iran to develop a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Obama said. “Their rhetoric towards Israel is unacceptable.”

Wonderful. But what results would he expect from such a meeting? Read the whole thing.

There's much more on yesterday's town meeting in Boca Raton at Gateway Pundit.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:25 PM