Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

I once met a woman who was born and raised in Iran and lived under the Shah, and later, under Ayatollah Khomeini. I remember how she spoke passionately, in her broken English, about just how terrible the Shah of Iran actually was. When I asked her about life under the Ayatollah, she replied, “Shah bad, Ayatollah worse, much worse!”

Of course, the Iranian leadership has come a long way since their Ayatollah Khomeini days. Unfortunately for the world, most of their progress has been confined to their department of great ambitions.

Back in October of 2014, in a speech at Northwestern University, President Obama made it very clear that, even though he was not on the upcoming fall ballot, his policies were. One month later that speech was followed by one of the all-time Republican landslide election victories, an anti-Obama landslide victory to be sure.

As of this past January, Benjamin Netanyahu has been feeling the friendly winds of a new American Congress. And now this newly elected 114th Congress, by way of John Boehner, has invited the Prime Minister of Israel to speak directly to them and to the American public. Seeing that this new Congress actually takes the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran seriously, he has decided to take John Boehner up on his generous invitation.

Since then, there has been a lot of outrage tossed in Netanyahu’s direction regarding “the Israeli election,” “breaches in protocol,” and his alleged metaphoric “spit in the face” of the president. I believe all this outrage is nothing but a smokescreen to protect the president’s failed national foreign policy; that Bibi’s critics of his upcoming speech: doth protest too much.

Still, there is mounting pressure on the prime minister to cancel his speech. Obama refuses to meet with Bibi should he come, Biden will be “traveling,” John Kerry will not see him, and a whole lot of Dems are threatening to be speech no shows. And J-Street, a leftwing American Jewish political organization, has launched a “Bibi does not speak for me!” petition drive.

But this is what I think:  

The prime minister of Israel will speak before Congress because

1. He honestly believes a nuclear-armed Iran will one day use those weapons against Israel.

2. He honestly believes a nuclear-armed Iran will one day be a global threat.

3. He honestly believes a nuclear-armed Iran is a radical Islam Pandora’s Box that should never see fruition.

4. He honestly believes the current Iran negotiations are a charade.

And here perhaps is my greatest pearl of wisdom:

The prime minister of Israel will speak before Congress because he can see the writing on the White House wall.

As we all know, to “see the writing on the wall” is to understand an ominous event is about to take place based on current realities. It is an expression that goes back many centuries, all the way back to a legendary King Belshazzar party—cut short by a mysterious hand, writing on the palace wall. Nobody could decipher the message of that hand until Daniel arrived on the scene and explained to the king that his number was up; that his character was found wanting; and that his kingdom was about to be divided up by the Persians and Medes.

Whereas Benjamin Netanyahu is not to be confused for a modern-day Daniel, I do believe he has no problem reading the ominous writing on the White House wall regarding Iran. And it reads thus: The numbered days of the president are not yet up; his character is found wanting; and this president is not at all serious about stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.