What was new in the speech was the threats to the U.S. economy, should Congress vote down the deal.
What was not new were the implicit suggestions that the powerful Jewish lobby, and/or the Israeli government is seeking to undermine the deal because they really prefer war, or because they simply do not understand the region like Obama and his experts do.
In fact, he singled out Israel as the only nation which has not expressed support for the deal. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf nations were probably surprised to hear that line.
IRAN’S ‘PEACEFUL’ NUCLEAR PROGRAM?
It may also have been surprising to some to hear Obama talk about Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
In a portion of the speech that seemed to address voters in Iran, rather than in Iowa or Illinois, the President castigated those who think that anything we do will “force Iran to completely dismantle all vestiges of its nuclear infrastructure, even aspects that are consistent with peaceful programs. That is oftentimes, what the critics are calling a better deal.”
Forgive those who thought the whole idea of having discussions with Iran about its nuclear program was to, as the President and his supporters had been saying, get Iran to dismantle all of its centrifuges and remove all enriched uranium from the country.
Here is what he is saying now about those earlier goals: “Neither the Iranian government, or the Iranian opposition, or the Iranian people would agree to what they would view as a total surrender of their sovereignty.”
MOCKING NETANYAHU
But guess who is making such demands? Well, just the day before in his speech Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu reminded his audience that a better deal than the JCPOA would be one with tougher sanctions, and that the world should not be abandoning the only significant leverage over Iran.
What did Obama say about that?
First Obama quoted his critics who said “we should get a better deal. That is repeated over and over again. It’s a bad deal — we need a better deal.” The audience tittered in response to the mocking tone.
“One that relies on vague promises of toughness and, more recently, the argument that we can apply a broader and infinite set of sanctions to squeeze the Iranian regime harder.” That is exactly what Netanyahu said. He said Iran needs this deal, and suggested that they would come back to the table if this one was rejected and the rest of the nations pushed harder.
And this is where it got quite ugly.
After clearly referring to Netanyahu as the one calling for tougher sanctions, Obama then described the proponents of that position as being “either ignorant of Iranian society, or they are not being straight with the American people.” That’s right. President Obama is saying Netanyahu and the entire Israeli government, and the vast majority of Israelis are ignorant or are trying to pull a fast one over on the American people. That’s ugly.
There may have been titters earlier, but the sound must have been muted during the real punch line. That is when the President talked about the Iranian government’s need to respond to its citizens desires and that it will surely use the billions of dollars in sanctions relief for “funding pensions and salaries to paying for crumbling infrastructure.”
In yet another surprise argument – delivered with a straight face – the President mocked the notion that Iran is trying to become a hegemon in the Middle East, let alone having designs on world domination.
IRAN WILL BE JUST A MINOR LOCAL BULLY
Sounding as if he were discussing a western European, secular country, Obama told Americans that “contrary to the alarmists who claim Iran is on the brink of taking over the Middle East, or even the world, Iran will remain a regional power with its own set of challenges.”
