Sanctions - which have been undermined by Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Turkish non compliance - will not prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Forty years of sanctions did not prevent the nuclearization of North Korea, and thirty three years of sanctions against Iran have provided Teheran with additional time to develop/acquire nuclear capabilities.
The ideological divide between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama is unbridgeable. It cannot be papered-over by photo-opportunities, smiles and warm hospitality.
On the other hand, the worldview expressed by Netanyahu during his recent visit to the USA is consistent with the majority of Americans and their representatives at the US House of Representatives and US Senate.
According to a February 12, 2012 Pew Research Center poll, Americans support employing military force to prevent Iran from getting nukes by a margin of 58%:30%. 12% are undecided. 39%:5% want the US to support a potential Israeli military preemption to prevent Iran from becoming nuclear, while 51% want the US to remain neutral. These opinions have been consistent since October, 2009. A majority of Americans - 64%:21% - maintain that tougher sanctions will not be effective in preventing Iran's nuclear drive. Most Democrats, Independents and Republicans concur that even tougher sanctions are ineffective.
A March 3, 2011 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll - conducted by Democrat Peter Hart and Republican Bill McInturff - documents a 52%:40% majority of Americans supporting military action to destroy Iran's capability to develop nuclear weapons. According to a February 2, 2012 Pulse Opinion Research poll, conducted for "The (Capitol) Hill" newspaper, likely voters support the use of military force - 49%:31% - to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. A January 19, 2012 Rasmussen Report shows that 63% of likely voters believe that sanctions are unlikely to stop Iran's nuclear weapons development.
The aforementioned polls reaffirm that the US is a center-right nation, consistent with polls which document that conservatives (40%) and moderates (40%) outnumber liberals (20%).
Apparently, Netanyahu was not able to convince Obama that:
Sanctions - which have been undermined by Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Turkish non compliance - will not prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Forty years of sanctions did not prevent the nuclearization of North Korea, and thirty three years of sanctions against Iran have provided Teheran with additional time to develop/acquire nuclear capabilities.
The US is the prime target for Iran's nuclear weapons, as it is for Al Qaeda terrorism. Iran develops its super-capability (nuclear weapons) in order attain its super-goal (domination of the Gulf), and remove the super-obstacle (US military presence). Israel is a secondary target for Iran.
Vital US interests are at stake. A nuclear Iran would accelerate nuclear proliferation among anti-US regimes in the Mid-East and beyond, would cause a meltdown of pro-US regimes in the Gulf, would disrupt the supply of oil with devastating implications for the price at the pump and on unemployment, could transfer nuclear systems to its beachheads in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Mexico, and would bolster global Islamic terrorism and sleepers cells in the US and Canada.
The cost of non-preemption (a nuclear confrontation) would dwarf the cost of preemption.
The Netanyahu-Obama summit highlighted the clash of their respective ideologies, which was the background for Netanyahu's speech at the AIPAC Conference.
While Obama adheres to long-term engagement with rogue regimes - through diplomacy and sanctions - Netanyahu believes that long-term engagement is perceived by rogue regimes as hesitation and vacillation, thus fueling radicalism, violence and instability.
While Obama prefers a domestically-driven regime-change in Iran over a military preemption, Netanyahu has concluded that a prerequisite for regime-change is a surgical non-occupation, no-boots-on-the-ground military preemption, which would provide the required tailwind for the domestic opposition.
While Obama refers to recent developments on the Arab Street as the Arab Spring, which would, supposedly, moderate the Mid-East and could bring down the Ayatollahs regime, Netanyahu observes a tectonic, stormy Arab Winter, which will add fuel to the burning Mid-East.
While Obama highlights multilateralism, and considers the UN as a preferred quarterback of international relations, Netanyahu is aware that the UN is a hostile arena for the Free World. He is convinced that US unilateralism is essential to global sanity, based on US moral and strategic exceptionalism.
While Obama dismisses the notion of trans-national Islamic and Jihadist terrorism, Netanyahu recognizes the global nature of Islamic terrorism, with Iran as one of its quarterbacks.
While Obama considers the Palestinian issue to be the root cause of Mid-East turbulence, the crown jewel of Arab policy-making and the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Netanyahu is aware that the Palestinian issue is a derivative of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and a secondary/tertiary factor in shaping the Mid-East.
In order to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities, President Obama will have to amend his worldview. Otherwise, Netanyahu will have to demonstrate the principle and value-driven tenacity and steadfastness of former Israeli Prime Ministers Ben Gurion, Eshkol, Golda Meir, Begin and Shamir, who founded the Jewish State, and catapulted it to dramatic achievements, through the defiance of US and global political correctness.
According to a June, 2012 study by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau (PRB), 72% of 15-49 year old Palestinian married women prefer to avoid pregnancy, as are 78% in Morocco, 71% in Jordan, 69% in Egypt and Libya, 68% in Syria, 63% in Iraq and 61% in Yemen. The PRB study states that "a growing number of women are using contraception, as family planning services have expanded in the Arab region." The unprecedented fertility decline in the Muslim world was documented in June, 2012 by Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt, a leading demographer at the American Enterprise Institute, and Apoorva Shah of the Hoover Institute.
US global leadership. Thou shall embrace US global leadership, underscoring US freedom of unilateral action, rather than subordinating US policy to multilateral considerations. The US - not the UN or any international order - is the dominant quarterback of international relations. US global leadership is critical for its economic, homeland security and military concerns. It bolsters posture of deterrence, providing a tailwind for allies, thus constraining clear and present threats posed by rogue/terrorist Islamic regimes. On the other hand, US withdrawal is interpreted as weakness, emboldening adversaries, weakening allies, fueling clear and present dangers and facilitating the recurrence of 9/11
In 1830, New York University Prof. George Bush, the great-granduncle of G.H.W. Bush, considered one of the most profound American scholars of the mid-19th century, published "The Life of Mohammed". He was not concerned about political correctness, was low on delusion and top heavy on realism. His 1830 reference to the Islamic threat was consistent with the 2012 state of intra-Muslim atrocities, hate-education, tyranny, anti-US stormy Arab winter, intolerance of criticism, global Islamic terrorism in general and suicide bombing in particular.
The murder of nearly 3,000 persons on 9/11 was planned while President Clinton extended his hand to the Muslim World, in general, and to the Palestinians, in particular. The October 12, 2000 murder of seventeen USS Cole sailors occurred when Clinton brokered unprecedented Israeli concessions to the Palestinian. The August 27, 1998 murder of 257 persons at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania took place while Clinton brutally pressured Prime Minister Netanyahu. The 1995/6 murder of 19 US soldiers in Riyadh and Khobar Towers was carried out while Clinton courted Arafat. The December 21, 1988 murder of 270 PanAm-103 passengers took place a few months following the groundbreaking recognition of the PLO by Reagan. The April/October 1983 murder of 300 Marines at the US Embassy and the Marines headquarters in Beirut occurred while Reagan interfered with Israel's hot pursuit of the PLO, blasting Israel for its war on PLO terrorism.
Definition: King's Calendar Chronological Research
The Premise: Between the 5th and 3rd centuries BCE (but continuing down to at least 104 BCE), Sectarian redactors transcribed the legitimate 'solar year' chronological records of Israel and Judah, into an artificial form, with listed years as each comprised of 12 months of 4 weeks of 7 days, or 336 days per year, thus creating a 13th artificial year where 12 solar years existed.
When the Synchronous Chronological Data provided in the Books of Kings and Chronicles for the Divided Kingdom Period are measured in years of 336 days, the synchronisms actually align. [Refer to Appendix 5. to see how it synchronises the Divided Kingdom Period]
About the KingsCalendar Publisher
R.P.BenDedek is the owner and Editor of KingsCalendar.com which was originally set up to publicize his research results into the Chronology of Ancient Israel. Those results were published under the title: 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran'.
Whilst there have been many attempts to solve the chronological riddle of the Bible's synchronisms of reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah and their synchronism with other Ancient Near Eastern Nations, no other research is based on a simple mathematical formula which could, if it is incorrect, be disproved easily. To date, no one has been able to dismiss the mathematical results of this research.
Free to air Academic articles set forth Apologetics for and results of his discovery of an "artificial chronological scheme" running through the Bible, Josephus, the Damascus Documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Seder Olam Rabbah.
During the current economic downturn, this book has been drastically reduced in price but will eventually rise as the economy improves.
Check the Chapter Precis Page to see details of each chapter and to gain access to the Four Free to Air Chapters
R.P. BenDedek writes social commentaries and photographic 'Stories from China' both at KingsCalendar, and as a contributing columnist at Magic City Morning Star News in Maine USA.
(He has been teaching Conversational English in China since 2003 and currently (2013) is teaching in Suzhou City Jiangsu Province.)
