Benjamin Netanyahu is the Winston Churchill of Our Generation

Prime Minister Winston Churchill is one of the greatest leaders of Great Britain. Benjamin Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. Their countries are the most stalwart friends of the United States with the United States and Great Britain sharing a “Special Relationship.” Yet, England, Israel, and Iran illustrate the tenets of the Obama foreign policy: smite thy friends and placate thy enemies. Sadly for America, England, and Israel, President Obama loathes our two closest allies. His personal dislike for Israel’s leader is well known. He stood him up in the White House when a 2010 meeting went nowhere. The petulant President stormed out when he didn’t get what he wanted. He stated “I’m going to the Presidential Wing to have diner with Michelle and the girls.” The President didn’t even offer crumbs to the Prime Minister. The young Benjamin Netanyahu spent many of his formative years in the United States. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree from MIT. He understands the American people, but has to wonder about the current President. Prime Minister Tony Blair of England loaned a bust of Winston Churchill to the White House as a show of support and solidarity after 9/11. Churchill was made an honorary citizen of the United States in 1963. In addition, Jennie Randolph (nee Jerome), his mother, was an American born in Brooklyn. One of President Obama’s first acts as President was to package the Churchill Bust and send it back to the British. His Administration denied the return in July 2012, but was caught in a misstatement. Actually, it was a blatant lie. The theory is that the President believes British soldiers tortured his Kenyan grandfather. Speaker of the House John Boehner has ordered a new Churchill Bust to be placed in the Capitol. Churchill was a rising British politician, becoming in 1911 First Sea Lord, equivalent to our Secretary of the Navy. His career short-circuited when he sponsored the World War I disaster at Gallipoli in Turkey. He “wandered” the political wilderness in the 1930’s warning about Nazi Germany. He argued for rearmament. Few listened to Churchill as the British people were weary after the heavy losses during World War I. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain practiced appeasement with Hitler and boasted he had obtained “peace in our time.” He resigned as Prime Minister on May 10, 1940 after France fell to the Germans. Churchill was appointed his successor and rallied the British people to resist the Nazi jugglenaught when all seemed lost. His prescience continued after the war when on March 5, 1946 at Westminister College in Missouri he delivered his famous Iron Curtain Speech proclaiming “An Iron Curtain has descended across the continent” by Stalin and the Soviet Union. Prime Minister Netanyahu is in the President’s doghouse while the President seeks rapprochement with the Mullahs of Iran. The Israeli leader has twice spoken to the United Nations, a seabed of rising anti-semitism, about the dangers posed by Iran. He was basically met with the sounds of silence in the General Assembly. His September 27, 2012 speech to the General Assembly is known as the Red Line Speech. He said of Iran’s nuclear ambitions “At this late hour, there is only one way to peacefully prevent Iran from getting atomic bombs. That’s by placing a clear red line on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.” We know, of course, that a red line is a flexible concept with President Obama. He stated recently at the 40th Anniversary of the Yom Kipper War: “We can’t surrender the option of a preventative strike. It is not necessary in every situation, and it must be weighed carefully and seriously. But there are situations in which paying heed to the international price of such a step is outweighed by the price in blood we will pay if absorb a strategic strike that will demand a response later on, and perhaps too late.” Israel emerged out of the gases and fires of the Holocaust. It will not passively await such a fate today. President Obama will, of course, try to block any strike on Iran, and perhaps order the United States military to block one. Prime Minister Netanyahu and United States Secretary of State John Kerry met a few days ago in Rome for seven hours of talks. The Prime Minister wants the hard sanctions to remain on Iran while the President appears to be going wobbly to the dismay Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other Mideast countries scared of Iran. Winston Churchill was not in a position to block Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. Benjamin Netanyahu is in a different position today.