Netanyahu's "Churchill Moment"

During debates in the House of Commons Winston Churchill was often polite to those he meant to execute. Today, when he spoke to a joint session of congress, Benjamin Netanyahu seized his "Churchill Moment". He did not disappoint us.

Now at last Barack Obama must realize that Benjamin Netanyahu did not become prime minister of Israel in order to preside over the liquidation of his country due to the political myopia of a Muslim inclined president who adopted the Arab narrative long before he scrambled into the imperial box.

This was an historic speech. It described the chilling litany of terrorist attacks upon America and the West for which Iran has been responsible since 1979. It exposed the duplicity of the Iranian leadership and how they glorify, finance, train, arm and supply terrorists. It compared the difference between the liberal, democratic values enshrined in the constitution of the United States to the totalitarian, autocratic and genocidal goals of Iran's constitution written in 1979 and it warned us that Iran's behavior, as destructive and lethal as it is now without a nuclear weapon, will be far worse once she realizes her nuclear ambitions. Not to know all this is one thing, but to know it and to pretend that Iran's behavior will improve once she becomes a nuclear power is to deliberately lead us into the long dark shadow of the gallows.

Netanyahu explained that the two most dangerous aspects of the proposed agreement are, 1) none of Iran's nuclear facilities will be destroyed while all of its centrifuges will remain intact some spinning furiously away with some disconnected and, 2) at the end of 10 years, all of the agreement's restrictions having expired, Iran will have a green light to produce nuclear weapons at a vertiginous rate. This is why the prime minister regards the agreement as a "very bad deal."

Although he did not say so, Netanyahu implied that president Obama and our negotiators in Geneva have been behaving like a dithering old nanny accustomed to the best of households urging hooligans of extreme vulgarity to behave themselves. The prime minister made it clear that although the mullahs may believe they have been playing the West for fools in Geneva they would not have this luxury with regard to Israel. The stern warning came when he told the Congress that Jews, once voiceless, could now speak for themselves and that if the hour came Israel stood ready to defend herself, if necessary alone.

The prime minister was interrupted by standing ovations about forty times by members from both sides of the aisle but this is not likely to have any effect on Barack Obama. He will not be reprimanded, rebuked or chastened if his behavior after the 2010 and 2014 congressional elections is any guide. It is more likely that he will forge ahead and plough through any objections with all the confidence of his inability, a disturbing trait in a man who assumed generalship without ever having done any soldiering. His belief that he is right increases with every step he takes away from reality culminating with complete conviction in the editorials of the New York Times, the eructations of Nancy Pelosi and the sycophancy of the fossilized members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

After listening to his speech today no sentient person can be in any doubt that the birth of a nuclear Iran would be like going to a play where as the curtain rises the first thing you see is a gun on the mantelpiece. If it is still there at the end of the first act, you know that it is only a matter of time before it is going to be used. All you have to do is wait.

The kind of moral and strategic clarity exhibited today by Israel's prime minister is like kryptonite to the "terrorist caucus" of the Democratic party. Had they been alive at the time they would have walked out on Churchill but their absence in the chamber today made no difference to what can only be described as Benjamin Netanyahu's finest hour.