Great lpiece by Steve Apfel
'What is it about Switzerland? Three Presidents have tried their luck at dealing with blatant insanity. Obama played his cards in Lausanne in 2015 while Biden bet on Vienna five years later. Genevaâs turn had come. The Presidentâs golf pal Witkoff went through the motions. Last night Trump gave thumbs up. The Mullah team had its final chance. At that moment in Tehran all hell broke loose.
Of all murky lunacies, redoing nuclear talks with born liars and lunatics is the most comic, the most idiotic, the most perilous. âThe president wants diplomatic solutions. He prefers them greatly.â Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to mask Trumpâs serial ultimatums tagged with frantic appeals for Tehran to negotiate. Heâd risked sailing close to the wind, given Obamaâs âworst deal ever made,â that crude denouncement now putting the Presidentâs political life at risk. The Special Envoy was having a third stab at a nuclear deal. The Mullahs would have been relishing one cop-out after another. And they slipped a fourth round of playing postmanâs bluff onto the rumor mill.
Never mind the MAGA movement. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs conducted in February 19-23 found that both the left and right view Iranâs nuclear program as a threat. At the same time they lack trust in the Presidentâs judgment. As for the isolationist crowd, a military escapade in the Middle East scares the hell out of them. Zionists getting America to fight their wars are not the flavor of the day. Bait clicks for populist Tucker Carlson and professor John Mearsheimer were as likely as the risk of Iranâs ballistic missiles to de-escalate.
Many in the MAGA movement look askew at the Presidentâs involvement in Ukraine, Venezuela, and Gaza as a betrayal of his vow to put âAmerica first.â It would all have blown up in his face had Trump not bombed the terrors of Tehran to smithereens but cut a deal which froze rather than dismantled their nuclear program, declaring it better than Obamaâs excuse for a deal.
For sure, the motives of the 44th and 47th Presidents were poles apart. A signature legacy motivated the former to bargain with the devil. And he meant to empower Iranâs theocracy, not bring it down. Indeed Obama was about to turn the old order upside down. Iran, hitherto Americaâs number one foe, was going to be, in the worldâs number one hotspot, Americaâs number one ally. A detente brewed between the worldâs powerhouse and the worldâs sour pickle jar.
Witkoff was spared having to wave a dead duck of a deal. Iâm sorry, but I struggle to give the real estate developer the time of day as an authentic broker of global peace. Take the latest statement he gave in an interview with Trumpâs daughter-in-law :
Moving to new ground he told Tehran it must do two things to avoid an attack by Americaâs gulf armada: âNumber one, no nuclear. Number two, stop killing protesters. They are killing them by the thousands.â On CBS Evening News he warned about âvery strong actionsâ if public executions occurred. âThey were going to hang 837 people, and I gave them the word, if you hang one person, even one person, that youâre going to be hit right then and there. I wasnât waiting two weeks and negotiating. And they gave up the hanging. They didnât hang 837, supposedly they didnât hang anybody.â
It came over as naive about how Jew-hatred works. Too close he sailed to Obama, who at one time lectured The Atlanticâs Jeffrey Goldberg about the behaviour of monster Mullahs.
âThere are deep strains of anti-Semitism in the core regime, but they also are interested in maintaining power.â
Goldberg begged to disagree. âItâs my belief that it is difficult to negotiate with parties that are captive to a conspiratorial anti-Semitic worldview; not because they hold offensive views, but because they hold ridiculous viewsâŚ. I donât believe that the regime can be counted on to be entirely rational.â
The truth lies deeper. Yes, thereâs nothing calculated in verbal attacks of the kind that Iran makes. Like a volcano they seem to emanate from some deep superheated disturbance. But when anti-Semites spew vitriol at Israel they do more than distort facts or recite a miscellany of canards. Seldom do anti-Semites react to provocation, to what Jews have done. When a core figure warns that Iran needs only 24 hours and an excuse to wipe Israel off the map, heâs not mad at Israelâs deeds. Heâs passionately in love with hating Jews.
Walter Russell Mead would agree.
âNations and political establishments warped by this hatred tend to make one dumb decision after another â starting at shadows, warding off imaginary dangers, misunderstanding the nature of problems they face.â
Itâs what Goldberg was getting at, and what pulled him up short. Debriefing Foreign Policy Journal afterwards he bemoaned the Presidentâs obtuseness.
âObama doesnât seem to fully understand that anti-Semites actually believe the dangerous and idiotic things they say.â Had he not been a died-in-the-wool Democrat, perhaps Goldberg would have paid closer attention to the Presidentâs own âtakeâ on the subject. Had he done so Obama would not have slipped the most cardinal error past him:
Let Trump beware. More than his support for Israel, more than displaying empathy for the Iranian people, he had to stand by his word. Remember, he publicly vowed to rescue the Iranians. Last nightâs joint attack was late for tens of thousands of freedom-crazed Iranians who lost their lives. Even so, he was not another Obama who drew a red line but recoiled from keeping it. âIf you dare cross this line I shall draw a new one.â
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'What is it about Switzerland? Three Presidents have tried their luck at dealing with blatant insanity. Obama played his cards in Lausanne in 2015 while Biden bet on Vienna five years later. Genevaâs turn had come. The Presidentâs golf pal Witkoff went through the motions. Last night Trump gave thumbs up. The Mullah team had its final chance. At that moment in Tehran all hell broke loose.
Of all murky lunacies, redoing nuclear talks with born liars and lunatics is the most comic, the most idiotic, the most perilous. âThe president wants diplomatic solutions. He prefers them greatly.â Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to mask Trumpâs serial ultimatums tagged with frantic appeals for Tehran to negotiate. Heâd risked sailing close to the wind, given Obamaâs âworst deal ever made,â that crude denouncement now putting the Presidentâs political life at risk. The Special Envoy was having a third stab at a nuclear deal. The Mullahs would have been relishing one cop-out after another. And they slipped a fourth round of playing postmanâs bluff onto the rumor mill.
Never mind the MAGA movement. A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs conducted in February 19-23 found that both the left and right view Iranâs nuclear program as a threat. At the same time they lack trust in the Presidentâs judgment. As for the isolationist crowd, a military escapade in the Middle East scares the hell out of them. Zionists getting America to fight their wars are not the flavor of the day. Bait clicks for populist Tucker Carlson and professor John Mearsheimer were as likely as the risk of Iranâs ballistic missiles to de-escalate.
Many in the MAGA movement look askew at the Presidentâs involvement in Ukraine, Venezuela, and Gaza as a betrayal of his vow to put âAmerica first.â It would all have blown up in his face had Trump not bombed the terrors of Tehran to smithereens but cut a deal which froze rather than dismantled their nuclear program, declaring it better than Obamaâs excuse for a deal.
For sure, the motives of the 44th and 47th Presidents were poles apart. A signature legacy motivated the former to bargain with the devil. And he meant to empower Iranâs theocracy, not bring it down. Indeed Obama was about to turn the old order upside down. Iran, hitherto Americaâs number one foe, was going to be, in the worldâs number one hotspot, Americaâs number one ally. A detente brewed between the worldâs powerhouse and the worldâs sour pickle jar.
Witkoff was spared having to wave a dead duck of a deal. Iâm sorry, but I struggle to give the real estate developer the time of day as an authentic broker of global peace. Take the latest statement he gave in an interview with Trumpâs daughter-in-law :
Certainly Trump prevaricated like nobodyâs business. Last Friday he spoke like a pettish lad demanding that Iran âbetter negotiate a fair deal.â This followed Iranâs gunning down of 32,000 protesters in Februaryâs uprising. One expected Trump to stand by his word. In January Trump had declaimed that the U.S. would come to the rescue of protesters if the regime resorted to violence to quell the uprising. Then the atrocity â locals told the BBC it was unlike anything before. Trump reacted how? He promised Iranians that âhelp is on the way.â They waited. We waited.
Moving to new ground he told Tehran it must do two things to avoid an attack by Americaâs gulf armada: âNumber one, no nuclear. Number two, stop killing protesters. They are killing them by the thousands.â On CBS Evening News he warned about âvery strong actionsâ if public executions occurred. âThey were going to hang 837 people, and I gave them the word, if you hang one person, even one person, that youâre going to be hit right then and there. I wasnât waiting two weeks and negotiating. And they gave up the hanging. They didnât hang 837, supposedly they didnât hang anybody.â
It came over as naive about how Jew-hatred works. Too close he sailed to Obama, who at one time lectured The Atlanticâs Jeffrey Goldberg about the behaviour of monster Mullahs.
âThere are deep strains of anti-Semitism in the core regime, but they also are interested in maintaining power.â
Goldberg begged to disagree. âItâs my belief that it is difficult to negotiate with parties that are captive to a conspiratorial anti-Semitic worldview; not because they hold offensive views, but because they hold ridiculous viewsâŚ. I donât believe that the regime can be counted on to be entirely rational.â
The truth lies deeper. Yes, thereâs nothing calculated in verbal attacks of the kind that Iran makes. Like a volcano they seem to emanate from some deep superheated disturbance. But when anti-Semites spew vitriol at Israel they do more than distort facts or recite a miscellany of canards. Seldom do anti-Semites react to provocation, to what Jews have done. When a core figure warns that Iran needs only 24 hours and an excuse to wipe Israel off the map, heâs not mad at Israelâs deeds. Heâs passionately in love with hating Jews.
Anti-Semites are not, as the phrase goes, in their right minds. In a real sense they are out of their minds. A passion can do that. And the passion that collects around Israel is like no other. It consumes whole countries, even distorts trade. Quite sane leaders lose their minds over Israel.
Walter Russell Mead would agree.
âNations and political establishments warped by this hatred tend to make one dumb decision after another â starting at shadows, warding off imaginary dangers, misunderstanding the nature of problems they face.â
Itâs what Goldberg was getting at, and what pulled him up short. Debriefing Foreign Policy Journal afterwards he bemoaned the Presidentâs obtuseness.
âObama doesnât seem to fully understand that anti-Semites actually believe the dangerous and idiotic things they say.â Had he not been a died-in-the-wool Democrat, perhaps Goldberg would have paid closer attention to the Presidentâs own âtakeâ on the subject. Had he done so Obama would not have slipped the most cardinal error past him:
But it does: ergo the fatal move which ultimately cost the Third Reich victory. No one taught Obama that the extermination of Jews was not a means to an end but an end in itself? He doesnât know that the Final Solution was not a part of the war effort, it was fully equal to the whole war effort? Heâs not aware that resources needed for winning the war were diverted to the higher priority of putting Jews to death? He never read about the failure of Operation Barbarossa, a turning point in the fortunes of the Third Reich, in no small measure caused by the diversion of trains for Hitlerâs genocide project? Hitler condemned his own troops to the pitiless Russian winter so that trains to death camps would continue to run and oven chimneys would continue to smoke.
Let Trump beware. More than his support for Israel, more than displaying empathy for the Iranian people, he had to stand by his word. Remember, he publicly vowed to rescue the Iranians. Last nightâs joint attack was late for tens of thousands of freedom-crazed Iranians who lost their lives. Even so, he was not another Obama who drew a red line but recoiled from keeping it. âIf you dare cross this line I shall draw a new one.â
Trump was curious about why the Mullahs were not fazed by threats
He shouldnât have been. They acted true to form. Opinion.
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