This past week, we saw some important pro-Israel policies advance in Congress, learned through press reports that both the White House and Downing Street may finally be seeing the Iranian regime for who they are, and heard more bluster from the Islamic Republic’s tyrannical leaders. A jam-packed week for sure, so let’s dive right in.
Congress Gets it Right
Following the House advancing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) last week and the Senate doing the same this week, the yearly defense policy bill is on its way to the President’s desk. It includes several key elements of interest to those who support a robust US-Israel relationship.
Included in the NDAA is The US-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act. As some of you may recall, this is one of three Christians United for Israel National Summit legislative priorities. The legislation turned provision of the NDAA authorizes yearly grant funds of at least $6 million dollars to enhance cooperation between Israel and the US to combat the growing threat of cyber aggression.
Elsewhere in the NDAA, funds were authorized to support cooperation between Jerusalem and Washington on Israel’s missile defense systems and the creation of an interparliamentary group of four nations, Cyprus, Greece, Israel and the United States, all of whom are committed to limiting Turkey’s aggression.
Finally, continuing the good news from Capitol Hill, the Stop Iranian Drones Act, for which we announced our support at the beginning of the month, has passed out of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee – an important first step in making this legislation law.
World Leaders Begin to Get it
Last week, Israel’s Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, was in Washington where he informed American leaders that he has ordered the Israeli military to begin preparing for an attack against Iran. According to one American source, Gantz even went so far as to provide a timeline to his US counterparts for when such a strike might need to occur in order to avoid Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon. We hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, we hope the US and the world do not repeat the mistake made when Israel attacked Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, by blaming the Jewish state for deigning to save the world from a nuclear armed rogue regime.
On the heels of this news, reports indicate that the Europeans and the Biden administration are growing weary of Iran’s obviously unserious nuclear-oriented diplomatic engagement. In fact, on Sunday, the UK’s Foreign Secretary said, “This is the last chance for Iran to come to the negotiating table with a serious resolution to this issue, which has to be agreeing the terms of the JCPOA (nuclear accord).”
We think the JCPOA (the Iran deal) is weak an
ineffective, but it’s nice to see the UK beginning to take a slightly tougher line with Tehran. Ultimately, we hope the West doesn’t blink. Time will tell, but indications are that, at long last, reality is setting in from Washington to London to Paris.
And it should not be lost on Iran (or the world for that matter) that for the first time in history the Prime Minister of Israel visited the UAE this week. Prime Minister Bennett met with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed in a lengthy four-hour meeting. Iran was no doubt a major topic of discussion between the two leaders.
Iran Doesn’t Get it at All
One would think that all this talk of last chances and new sanctions would have an impact on Iran’s leaders. And that may very well be the case, but for now, they aren’t acknowledging it. In fact, despite Iran’s skyrocketing unemployment and ever-weakening currency, Iran’s rulers continue to strike a defiant tone.
Under President Trump’s maximum pressure campaign, Iran’s per capita GDP was sliced in half. Sanctions work. The Iranian leaders know it. And the Iranian people know their economic hardships are direct result of their rulers’ obsession with maintaining a warm war with the West and, of course, the rampant corruption that is a hallmark of “leadership” in Tehran.
In a way, we’ve been here before. Prior to President Obama’s nuclear accord with Iran, the Islamic Republic was facing periodic mass protests and an economic downturn that more than a few experts predicted would collapse the regime in about six months. We’ll never understand why President Obama tossed Iran’s kleptocratic and theocratic tyrants a lifeline (complete with pallets of cash – literally), but he did. And the results have been disastrous. Maybe, just maybe, President Biden won’t repeat that mistake.
Sincerely,
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