Posted by Jack (From the Times of Israel)
President Barack Obama said Tuesday afternoon that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “didn’t offer any viable alternatives” to the current negotiations with Iran in his speech to Congress earlier in the day.
The White House had said Obama would likely not watch the entire address but the president said he had read a transcript of Netanyahu’s speech.
“Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted,” no matter what it says about permitting verification of the terms of any accord designed to prevent it from getting such weapons, he said. ”This is a bad deal, it’s a very bad deal. We’re better off without it.” PM Netanyahu
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Netanyahu spoke shortly after Secretary of US State John Kerry met for more than two hours in Switzerland with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the hopes of completing an international framework agreement later this month to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Iran’s supreme leader … spews the oldest hatred of anti-Semitism with the newest technology,” Netanyahu said. “He tweets that Israel must be … destroyed.” PM Netanyahu
But Netanyahu said that while the emerging agreement did place certain limitations on Iran’s nuclear program, they would not be enough to prevent a nuclear breakout within “about a year by US assessment, a bit shorter by Israel’s.”
He further criticized the reported clause that would see many of the limitations placed on Iran lifted after a period of 10 years. A decade, he said, was “a blink of an eye” for a nation.
He said that with the concessions the United States was prepared to make, Iran would not only gain nuclear weapons, but also eventually become free of international economic sanctions. As a result, he said, it would be emboldened to finance even more terrorism around the Middle East and the world.
The result for Iran, he said, would be “aggression abroad and prosperity at home.”
The world should insist “Iran change its behavior,” Netanyahu pleaded. “If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country.”
The US, the prime minister insisted, must keep up pressure “on a very vulnerable regime,” particularly given dropping oil prices. If Iranians walk away from the negotiations, he said, they’ll come back, “because they need the deal a lot more than you do.”
“History has placed us at a fateful crossroads,” Netanyahu said. The world, he asserted, must choose between a path that will lead to “a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will inevitably lead to war” and a more difficult path that will, in the long run, prevent Tehran from becoming a regional aggressor.
He stressed that the alternative to a bad deal was not war: “It’s a much better deal.”
Instead, he called for a deal that would keep restrictions in place “until Iran’s aggression ends,” that wouldn’t “give Iran an easy path to the bomb.” He called for a deal that Israel may not love, “but with which we can live — literally.”
Before lifting sanctions, he said, the world should demand Iran cease its attacks against other countries in the region, stop supporting terrorism around the world, and “stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state.”
Netanyahu also dismissed the effectiveness of United Nations inspections on Iran’s nuclear sites, saying, “Inspectors document violations, they don’t stop them. Inspectors knew when North Korea broke out to the bomb but that didn’t stop (the North Koreans).”
“The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons,” he said. He predicted that the agreement, as it stands, would change the region for the worse, create a nuclear arms race and turn the Middle East into a “nuclear tinderbox.”
Nancy Pelosi: Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the party’s House leader, appeared agitated on the floor during the speech and later issued a statement saying she “was near tears” because she was “saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States” and “the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran.” New York Times.
PS COMMENTS: Obama asked the American people to trust him. He assures us that when he has finally brokered a deal with Iran it will be the very best deal possible. Obama added that no deal is on the table at the moment, so it’s unfair to criticize him based on speculation of what that deal might be.
Obama supporters know we should trust him now because of all the campaign promises he kept and all the great policy decisions he’s made as President. For example, now we have the most transparent administration in history, no scandals, no backroom deals and no cover ups. Certainly no spin!
Obama has taken money out of politics and saved us from corruption. He has given us a low cost national healthcare policy that will reduce an average family of four’s cost by $2500. And if Americans like their old policy or their old doctors, no problem, they can keep them.
Obama promised to reduce the national debt and he has all but wiped it out with his clever bond buy back, bailouts and smart investments in clean, green companies like Solyndra. Our debt is now down to a mere 19 trillion dollars!
Let us not forget he also kept North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and his strategic withdrawal made Iraq both a fun and safe place to live.
His policy of dialog and support of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Palestine has all but eliminated terrorism.
The Ukrainian’s are thankful too, Obama kept the Russians from bullying them and seizing their territory for their oil and gas pipe lines.
Relations with Israel have never better and Israel has never been safer! He’s taken away China’s motive for wanting to tear us down, by making their economy even better than ours! We’re no threat anymore, we’re their best customers! And the long list of why we should trust President Obama to keep Iran from producing nuclear weapons just keeps on growing and growing.
I too was almost in tears today watching Bibi speak before congress. But, my tears were because I realized Obama was trading Israel’s future for Iran’s approval to have nuclear bombs in about 10 years. Israel will cease to exist at that time.
I just saw this article and it explains better than I can just what a very sad day it was today.
Obama Makes the Worst Trade in US History: Israel for Iran
“On the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, a despicable and disastrous betrayal has become clear: President Barack Obama has traded Israel for Iran.
In the annals of the history of American foreign policy filled with pages of willful blindness, amorality and often State Department-led folly, there are few things more substantively and symbolically egregious than this fundamental transformation.
Consider the two nations of which we are speaking: One is the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, run by genocidal jihadist theocrats who in their Twelver Shiite theology seek to bring on the apocalypse by destroying the cradle of world civilization. The other is a bastion of liberty, plurality, dynamism, creativity and innovation, despite being surrounded by myriad hostile regimes.
In a sane world, it would be unthinkable, unconscionable, and un-American for us to turn on the state of Israel – the front line of Western civilization against barbarians who seek to take us, and who are fast taking themselves, back to the seventh century.
But then we are in year seventh of the Obama presidency, an “Alice in Wonderland” world in which the seemingly perverse has become the norm, all in the name of regressive progressivism.”
Continued..
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/obama-makes-the-worst-trade-in-u-s-history-israel-for-iran/
I understand Pelosi acted like a 13 year old brat on the House floor today and all of the Democrats who spoke after the speech were reading from the script provided by the WH or DNC. Shameful!! Disneyland drinking coke and Cheney? Seriously?! Pathetic!
Bibi on the other hand spoke for about 40 minutes and had 40 standing ovations.
I am 100% disgusted. I do not get your post at all.
With all due respect, Different opinion here.
That speech belittles the intelligence of Americans. He put all Americans in the stupid can and insulted many many of us.
Bibi has been trying to get us to pay fore his war for 20 years! He also promised us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Whether one likes a President or not to show more respect for a warmongering foreign leader than the leaders of the United States needs to be looked at. Is it Treason? Sedition? The Logan act? At the least disgusting. Not patriotism for sure.
Fear mongering and childish.Insulting the intelligence of Americans is what I saw.
No one has ever said we would not go into Iran if necessary. Everyone has said we will not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon. BTW What was Bibi’s solution? What did he offer?
That was a fear mongering campaigning lobbyist for war. I am not fooled nor ignorant enough to fall for his ploy. I also hope it hurts his campaign and the people of Israel win their election throwing that man out.
The end of the world biblical statements were 100% out of order.
God save America.
Dewey, er Georgia,…uh, my post? I reported verbatim what was in the NYTimes and ITimes. If you disagree with them that is your prerogative, but you have also extrapolated facts not in evidence. That opinion appears to come from Nancy Pelosi, one the dumbest people in Congress… in my opinion. So, what are your REALLY basing your shallow knowledge on anyway? I see you didn’t acknowledge any of Bibis main points as wrong. Why not? You also didn’t acknowledge the current treaty details proposed for Iran’s acceptance. Do you even know what they are?
Excuse me, mr prez – there WAS something new. We got to see a real leader, which is something you do not qualify for.
It’s been said by the stupid Nancy Pelosi that Netanyahu’s speech was condescending, making us look like we’re stupid. Well, first off we are stupid, look at who we elected president! But, that’s a side point. And when I say “we,” I mean the [typical] American voter who seems to casts a ballot with a short memory, based on emotion and with about 10% of the knowledge available on any given candidate or issue.
In my opinion, in no way did Bibi imply we were stupid, quite the contrary. I think Bibi gave us credit where credit wasn’t due.
Trust is earned, never requested;
that is unless you’re a scam artist such as Obama.
“Scam artist exploit typical human characteristics such as greed, dishonesty, vanity, opportunism, lust, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, desperation, and (to a great degree) naivety. As such, there is no consistent profile of a confidence victim; the common factor is simply that the victim relies on the good faith of the con artist”
I believe that Jack has listed sufficient scenarios where Obama has proven himself unworthy of the American voters trust!
Harold, I think there has been a shift in the media because of Obama’s failures and obstinacy. Now this is just anecdotal I don’t have any hard evidence to support it, but I’m hearing the msm asking tougher question of Obama. Maybe the partisan honeymoon is finally coming to a close?
We could sure use more unbiased investigative reporting.
Obama criticized Bibi for not offering anything new.
‘Obama said Netanyahu didn’t offer any “viable alternative” and that “as far as I can tell, there was nothing new” in the Tuesday speech.’
Bibi responded.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he offered a “practical alternative” to the deal being negotiated over Iran’s nuclear program, after President Barack Obama criticized his address to Congress as containing “nothing new.”
“In my speech before the Congress, I presented a practical alternative,” Netanyahu said upon landing at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport. He said his alternative would impose tougher restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and delay how quickly the Islamic Republic could assemble a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu reiterated that he had pushed the six powers currently negotiating with Iran — Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States — to link easing sanctions to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism, not just to the nuclear issue.
“I also called on the P5+1 to insist on a deal that would link the lifting of those restrictions to Iran’s ceasing its sponsorship of terrorism around the world, its aggression against its neighbors and its calls for Israel’s destruction,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister’s office issued a string of tweets quoting Netanyahu, concluding with the greeting, “Happy Purim,” the holiday based on the experiences recounted in the Book of Esther where the Jewish people were saved from a genocidal Persian official. Netanyahu in his Tuesday address compared the biblical narrative to the existential threat Iran poses to Israel today.
After Netanyahu’s speech, Obama told reporters that “on the core issue, which is how do we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which would make it far more dangerous and would give it scope for even greater action in the region, the prime minister didn’t offer any viable alternatives.”
Netanyahu told Congress Tuesday, “Now we’re being told that the only alternative to this bad deal is war. That’s just not true.”
“The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal,” the prime minister said.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/03/04/netanyahu-responds-to-obamas-criticism-of-his-speech-to-congress/
Dewey, You really need to stop listening to the lying democrats like Pelosi. Everything they say and do is political and for their best interest not the countries.
Dewey? Is that suppose to be some sort of slur? Mr post those are my feelings and I remained respectful.
I do not care about nancy Pelosi nor any Politician. I care about the corruption in our political system.
It is my personal belief that when so called Americans pride themselves on foreign leaders who have corrupt past that it is anti-American.
Shallow? My fine sir I study Israeli Politics. I have several Israeli American friends. They despise him.
Where do you get your information? I can back up everything I said. Also I wrote my own opinion did not copy someone else.
I did not watch the speech, I read the transcript. You see I could not let a patriotic thread of myself cater to that man.
IDF Generals Say Netanyahu is a Threat to Israeli Security
http://worldnewsforum.org/2015/03/01/breaking-news-idf-generals-say-netanyahu-is-a-threat-to-israeli-security/
I am sadden that you call me some name I do not understand. I am saddened that you do not love your country more than this.
Georgia we don’t care what name you use! Look, you can be Tea Party Dave, Steve, John T Rockafellow, TommyW39, Jeanie, Dr. Dare, Robert Schneider, Georgia, Dewey or you can even call yourself Barrack Obama… we really don’t care, whatever floats your boat is fine by us. Feel free to post your opinion within the rules and we’ll get along fine.
However, when treat us like we’re not on to your game of names, you tend get boring. When you say BS like, “I am saddened that you do not love your country more than this.” I’m incline to say, well boo hoo, then feel free to go jump on another blog! You know the drill, you been here before!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Qb_yDk0TY