Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used the Iranian leader’s own words Sunday morning to answer President Barack Obama’s claim that the nuclear agreement with Iran is the best option available.
The Prime Minister used the weekly Cabinet meeting as a platform for another offensive in the long-distance verbal battle with President Obama, who is trying to sell “ObamaDeal.’
One of the most directly opposite claims by both leaders concerns other options.
President Obama, joined on Friday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, argue that no one has suggested a better alternative, while Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated Sunday:
The alternative to this failed agreement, which we proposed repeatedly, is the continuation and strengthening of the sanctions on Iran and conditioning the lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program, and the lifting of the pressure on Iran, only if it changes its policy. As long as the Iranian leadership is encouraging calls of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’, there is no reason to make any concessions to them.
Obama has claimed that sanctions will be dropped by major countries even if an agreement were not reached. Kerry told PBS on Friday that “no alternative” has been offered and that Iran won’t be “crushed” by continuing sanctions “because we will lose the other people who are helping to provide those sanctions’
He added, “So, there is a lot of fantasy out there about this quote ‘better deal.'”
The Obama administration’s assumption that sanctions cannot continue is speculative, and no substantive claims have been made to support or deny the theory.
Netanyahu raised another objection to the deal, one that is proving much harder for President Obama to defend. Lifting sanctions will pump more than $150 billion into Iran’s bank accounts, and even President Obama admitted that “some” of the money will be used to fund Hezbollah and other terrorist fronts that are a direct threat to Israel.
Netanyahu said Sunday:
If someone thought that the extraordinary concessions to Iran would lead to a change in its policy, they received an unequivocal answer over the weekend in Iranian ruler Khamenei’s aggressive and contrary speech.
The Iranians aren’t even trying to hide the fact that they will use the hundreds of billions that they will receive under this agreement in order to arm their terror machine and they are clearly saying that they will continue their struggle against the US and its allies, first among them being Israel, of course.