Iran-US deal a bad deal? What about the BBL?
It was time for bed near midnight last Tuesday but then I couldn't resist staying awake because of a great event happening in the halls of the US Congress where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu was addressing a joint session of Congress in order to send a very important message to America which was live on CNN and BBC.
The beauty of today's technology is that, with instant communication, we were able to secure the entire speech of Netanyahu. But since he talked for over 40 minutes and was interrupted by more than 40 applauses or standing ovation, we can only put in excerpts of his speech that has some relevance to our problems here in the Philippines.
We heard that some Democrats did not show up for Netanyahu's speech, but the top leadership of the House of Representatives were present starting with House Speaker John Boehner, President Pro Tempore Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Netanyahu scored huge points in Congress when he opened his speech saying "My friends, I'm deeply humbled by the opportunity to speak for a third time before the most important legislative body in the world, the U.S. Congress." Indeed, America is the greatest nation on earth because of its financial and military might. Then Netanyahu added, "I know that no matter on which side of the aisle you sit, you stand with Israel. The remarkable alliance between Israel and the United States has always been above politics. It must always remain above politics." This statement literally got the whole US Congress on its feet applauding the Israeli Prime Minister.
Then Netanyahu started to be serious saying, "My friends, I've come here today because, as prime minister of Israel, I feel a profound obligation to speak to you about an issue that could well threaten the survival of my country and the future of my people: Iran's quest for nuclear weapons. We're an ancient people. In our nearly 4,000 years of history, many have tried repeatedly to destroy the Jewish people."
The Israeli Prime Minister continued, "Today the Jewish people face another attempt by yet another Persian potentate to destroy us. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei spews the oldest hatred, the oldest hatred of anti-Semitism with the newest technology. He tweets that Israel must be annihilated - he tweets. You know, in Iran, there isn't exactly free Internet. But he tweets in English that Israel must be destroyed.
For those who believe that Iran threatens the Jewish state, but not the Jewish people, listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Iran's chief terrorist proxy. He said: If all the Jews gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of chasing them down around the world. But Iran's regime is not merely a Jewish problem, any more than the Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. The 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis were but a fraction of the 60 million people killed in World War II.
So, too, Iran's regime poses a grave threat, not only to Israel, but also the peace of the entire world. To understand just how dangerous Iran would be with nuclear weapons, we must fully understand the nature of the regime."
I cannot put the entire Netanyahu speech in this column because it's too long. But what scared the Israeli Prime Minister was the negotiations initiated by US President Barrack Obama with Iran purportedly to curb their nuclear ambitions, which Netanyahu pointed out would only guarantee that by the end of that "Bad" deal, Iran would have nuclear weapons unless Congress puts a stop to this negotiation. Let's hope that the Americans would be more careful in dealing with Iran after Netanyahu's speech.
Netanyahu believes that talking with the Iranians would still result in their having nuclear arms, thus he believes that this was a bad deal. Two hours later, US Pres. Barrack Obama gave his retort to the Netanyahu speech saying that the Israeli Prime Minister did not offer an alternative. Perhaps Pres. Obama did not get Netanyahu's message that talking with Iran will not result to anything.
Come to think of it… the Israeli problem with the US talking with Iran is akin or very similar to Pres. Benigno Aquino III's talking peace with the MILF and offering them the Bangsamoro Basic Law, which many Filipinos believe that this was a real bad deal, more so that under this deal, the MILF would be given P70 billion. Just think, we are all taxpayers and in Region 7, we only get less than P4 billion annually and the MILF would get P70 billion? Wow! I dare say that giving the MILF their BBL is a bad deal for the Philippines! More on this issue in our column tomorrow!
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