Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (AP Photo)
President Obama's January 27th State of the Union address was a record 7,445 words. As Karl Rove noted, the President used the world "I" 96 times and the words "me" or "my" 18 times. And while President Obama covered his entire leftist agenda with self-aggrandizing and convoluted prose that remind the listener all too well of his two memoirs and presidential campaign, the President only found time to devote 41 words to the Iranian Mullah's apocalyptic drive to procure nuclear weapons.
President Obama's deliberate avoidance of the most pressing national security threat in the 21st century was not lost on the Senate. In one of the few bipartisan efforts of the Obama era, the Senate. by a unanimous voice vote, approved a crippling sanctions bill that will cut all ties between Iran and the United States in trade and disallow any US owned company from having business ties with Iran through a foreign subsidiary. Most importantly, the sanctions target the entire scope of the Iranian oil sector, including Iran's refining capacity. The House passed new, less expansive, sanctions on Iran last year. When the bill comes out of conference, the House and Senate will send President Obama the proper authority to finally show he is serious about having the Iranian regime face the "growing consequences" he mentioned in his address.
The Obama administration's first year has provided little tangible gain in cooperation on the sanction effort within the international community. With the P5 +1 negotiations with Iran (five permanent members of the UN Security Council + Germany) failing to produce any satisfactory deal with the Iranians, it is most apparent that the President's claim that the "international community is more united" against Iran's nuclear drive is simply hogwash. While the President is not to blame for Russia and China blocking any new UN Security Council sanctions on Iran, his deliberate mischaracterization of the world's posture is alarming.
However, all is not lost. With France assuming the Presidency of the Security Council this month, President Obama could show leadership by pushing for a vote on sanctions. President Obama has been handed an opportunity to put the 15 members of the Security Council, including Russia and China, on the record.
A failed sanctions effort will lead to the inevitable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a resolute and strong leader who will not allow the Mullahs of Iran to move forward in their quest to wipe Israel off the map. While Prime Minister Netanyahu promised President Obama that he would not order the IDF to take out the Iranian nuclear sites by convention or unconventional means until all diplomatic efforts were exhausted, the Prime Minister's primary obligation is too keep the Jewish nation secure. As Prime Minister Netanyahu routinely declares, "It is 1938; Iran is Germany; and it is racing to acquire nuclear weapons."
Once Prime Minister Netanyahu decides that the Western world has failed in their obligation to stop another holocaust, he will undoubtedly have the wide internal support to order the strike. What follows next is anyone's guess.
Jordan Sekulow is the Director of International Operations at the American Center for Law and Justice and co-host of Jay Sekulow Live. For more information visit www.ACLJ.org or follow Jordan on Twitter. Sam Nunberg is the Deputy Director of Government Relations based in the New York offices of the American Center for Law & Justice. Both are anxiously awaiting to hit the trail in 2012.
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