Israel Matzav

'Crippling' sanctions?

Jennifer Rubin believes that Prime Minister Netanyahu is nervous - and rightfully so - that after waiting for months, the sanctions that the Obama administration will seek to impose on Iran will be less than crippling.

Bibi Netanyahu responded with a statement that seems as much aimed at the Obami as at the Iranians: “I believe that what is required right now is tough action from the international community. … This means not moderate sanctions, or watered-down sanctions. This means crippling sanctions, and these sanctions must be applied right now.”

What Bibi is referring to is no secret. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have both been downplaying the “crippling” part of the “crippling sanctions” that the Obama team has been promising for months. They insist the sanctions must be focused so as not to impact the Iranian people. What those might look like and how we could possibly impact the regime by such narrowly focused measures have been left vague. Meanwhile, there are very serious sanctions that in slightly different forms have passed both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, but the Obama team has been noticeably cool to those. Too crippling, I suppose.

So let’s see if, in the face of the abject failure of its engagement strategy, and with bipartisan support in Congress for very tough sanctions — “not moderate sanctions, or watered-down sanctions” — the Obami can make a final stab at preventing the revolutionary Islamic state from going nuclear. I suppose we’ll know “within weeks” — but then the Obama team was supposed to get serious in September, and again at the close of 2009. We’ve seen this routine before. Bibi is right to be nervous.

Netanyahu is nervous, but not over the prospect that Obama will impose less than crippling sanctions. It's been a foregone conclusion here for months that the time for sanctions had long since passed and in any event President Obumbler would not authorize any sanctions that had a chance of having an effect. I'm sure that's been clear to Bibi since his first meeting with Obama back in May.

What Bibi must be nervous about is whether the action that he will have to take against Iran will be supported - or at least not opposed - by the United States and Europe. Bibi understands that with respect to Iran, military intervention is no longer a question of whether, but a question of when and how.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:27 AM