How else to explain the backbiting over the question of who would speak at the rally, to which both leading Democrats and Republicans were invited?
When the GOP produced vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as its representative, Sen. Hillary Clinton, the leading Democrat slated to appear, refused to honor her commitment. Instead of then matching Palin with her Democratic counterpart, Sen. Joseph Biden, or trumping her with Obama, the Democrats within the leading Jewish groups sponsoring the event forced the organizers to “disinvite” Palin.
In the end, the rally went off with no star power and had little effect. Those who justified shunning Palin claim she would have “politicized” the event, or that her appearance would have violated their tax-exempt status (even though non-profit groups are often addressed by politicians in election years, without causing trouble). But the truth is, her appearance only became a partisan bone of contention because some Democrats preferred to sabotage the rally rather than let her take part.
So if even Jews couldn’t rise above partisan politics to advance the cause of isolating Tehran, how can we expect Washington or Europe to heed our warnings?
Though many will take comfort from the candidates’ pledges on Iran, vague talk about diplomacy should reassure no one. Iran’s steady progress toward its goal of acquiring nuclear weapons continues, with no effective monitoring in place from the UN or anyone else. And, as Ahmadinejad’s week in New York proved, the campaign to isolate the Iranians is failing miserably.
This is the reality the next president will have to confront, whether he’d prefer to ignore it or not. Soon the question will no longer be whether to meet Ahmadinejad, with or without “preconditions,” but whether the next president will have the courage to make good on his promise to prevent Iran from possessing nuclear weapons after diplomacy has predictably failed.
Time is running out.