Israel Matzav

Tom Friedman: 'Let's make a shlemiel'

Tom Friedman will be more than happy to make himself a shlemiel - by being proven wrong yet again - if it will advance President Hussein Obama's anti-Israel pro-Iranian policy. But it's Israel that will face real consequences if Friedman (and Obama-Kerry) win.

Never have I seen Israel and America’s core Arab allies working more in concert to stymie a major foreign policy initiative of a sitting U.S. president, and never have I seen more lawmakers — Democrats and Republicans — more willing to take Israel’s side against their own president’s.

Hey Tom - maybe when everyone else is saying one thing and you and  your friends are saying another, you're wrong. Isn't that possible?  But no - Tom claims it's just that all-powerful Jewish lobby again.

I’m certain this comes less from any careful consideration of the facts and more from a growing tendency by many American lawmakers to do whatever the Israel lobby asks them to do in order to garner Jewish votes and campaign donations.

Is Stephen Walt now editing Tom's columns? 

Tom moves further into Fantasyland:

No, I don’t begrudge Israel and the Arabs their skepticism, but we still should not let them stop a deal. If you’re not skeptical about Iran, you’re not paying attention. Iran has lied and cheated its way to the precipice of building a bomb, and without tough economic sanctions — sanctions that President Obama engineered but which Netanyahu and the Arab states played a key role in driving — Iran would not be at the negotiating table.

Maybe Tom needs to have a conversation with Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) about how Obama opposed the sanctions until the Senate voted 100-0 in favor of the Kirk-Menendez amendment implementing them.  Obama did everything he could to stop the sanctions. Just like he's doing now.

In the long run, the deal Kerry is trying to forge with Iran is good for us and our allies for four reasons: 1) In return for very limited sanctions relief, the deal is expected to freeze all of Iran’s nuclear bomb-making technologies, roll back some of them and put in place an unprecedented, intrusive inspection regime, while maintaining all the key oil sanctions so Iran will still be hurting aplenty.

$40 billion in relief is very limited?  Hey Tom, all Iran has offered to do is... none of the things you list there (and if any of them are eventually achieved it will be because of France and not because of Obama). Iran would be delayed by a grand total of 24 days (!) if this deal goes through.

This way Iran can’t “build a bomb and talk” at the same time (the way Israel builds more settlements while it negotiates with Palestinians).

Cheap shot Tom. How about, "This way, Iran can't "build a bomb and talk" at the same time (the way the 'Palestinians' engage in terror and incitement while they 'negotiate' with Israel)."

2) While, Netanyahu believes more sanctions will get Iran to surrender every piece of its nuclear technology, Iran experts say that is highly unlikely.

And that makes this a 'good deal' precisely how?

3) Iran has already mastered the technology to make a bomb (and polls show that this is very popular with Iranians). There is no way to completely eliminate every piece of Iran’s nuclear technology unless you wipe every brain clean there.

And that makes this a 'good deal' precisely how?

4) The only lasting security lies in an internal transformation in Iran, which can only come with more openness.

You mean the one Obama killed in 2009?

If Israel kills this U.S.-led deal, then the only option is military. How many Americans or NATO allies will go for bombing Iran after Netanyahu has blocked the best effort to explore a credible diplomatic alternative? Not many. That means only Israel will have a military option. If Israel uses it, it may set Iran back, but it will also set Iran free to rush to a bomb. Is Israel ready to bomb Iran every six months? 

Hey Tom - our military says we can do much more than that. And we don't depend on Obama to protect us or to make our decisions. 

Tom Friedman has his head so far up Obama's you-know-what that he can no longer see reality - if he ever could. It's time to put Tom out to pasture. 

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, Tom Friedman

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:19 PM