I Hope We Have Learned From The Recent Past

++Bibi Netanyahu got his command standing ovations. He even played the Elie Wiesel card to invoke "Never Again".

++Few will detect the massive holes in a very well-given speech. He says that the "deal" which hasn't been made yet is a bad deal and that it will ensure Iran will have nuclear weapons. He says that the US believes at the end of the deal Iran will be one year from a breakout to have enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb. Israel, he says, believes the time is less. He invoked again that Iran is weeks away from a nuclear bomb.

++He claims the world would be better "without a deal". He believes that a deal will make the middle East a nuclear tinderbox. Most analysts believe that a lack of a deal will do the same.

++He puts forward that the West have three conditions: 1.Stop aggression;2. Stop supporting terrorism; and 3. stop threatening Israel. He also slips talks about Inter-continental Missiles on the table,saying that Iran will be able to nuke American cities.

++He chose North Korea as an unfortunate example. He said that inspectors showed North Korea was violating agreements on nuclear weapons and in five years North Korea will have 100. In other words, israel with no nuclear inspection has produced several hundred to Iran's zero and North Korea is catching up.

++He claims that Iran without sanctions would be more aggressive abroad and prosperous at home and this will change the Middle East for the worse.

++He tried to get out of the war conundrum saying the alternative was a better deal, not a bad deal.He claims the alternative is not war. But he did say Israel will stand alone if necessary but that it had as its ally the United States. He warned that the days of Jewish pacifism against a genocidal enemy is over.

++He raised the issue of how many more countries Iran will devour. He claims that this deal will guarantee that Iran will get hundreds of weapons. 

++I was struck how easy it is to fool the Congressional audience in part because they truly believe the United States controls the situation. A better deal depends on China, Russia and the Western European nations exerting for prolonged periods unified economic sanctions against Iran. It should be mentioned that the sanctions regime was the product of the Obama Administration. If the talks collapse, I foresee those sanctions disappearing.

++Bibi said that the "Deal'" would kill arms control. No deal, as American analysts have gamed out for years, will lead to a proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the Middle East. Israel will lose its nuclear dominance in a short time. Saudi Arabia has already pre-ordered a bomb from Pakistan.

++Ambassador Dermer spent the last three weeks working on Bibi's speech. What he was shrew enough to understand that Bibi couldn't make the assertions he did for the Iraq War that it would ushers in a period of peace for the Middle East. He had to avoid directly cheerleading for war with Iran so he came up with the Bad Deal analogy and the Good Deal alternative, which defies all practical possibilities in the political realm.

++While the United States is negotiating a reduction in the number of centrifuges, Bibi ups the number by 10-fold by citing Khamenei's hopes in the future--which is no where taking place.

++We were treated by the 20% Prime Minister of a regional nuclear power complaining about a country which doesn't have a nuclear weapon. We have a man dissecting an agreement that doesn't exist about nuclear weapons that don't exist. 

++Did Bibi pull it off? It was trickier to argue than weapons of mass destruction. He had to argue a theoretical future. He has to hope the next President still believes in preemptive war.

++One slight screw-up, I believe Bibi made was saying defeating ISIS and agreeing to this Deal would mean losing the war. Bibi downplayed ISIS against Iran. Maybe an intrepid reporter should explore this and ask why Israel is funding and arming Al Nusra. There actually is a practical reason for this but to an American audience backing an offshoot of Al Qaeda would not go over.

++Is President Obama right? We will forget this as a strange blip months down the road or did Bibi give the GOP the talking points they will use to destroy the deal?

++I think people have to be vigilant about accepting Bibi's words because the implications are the opposite of what he claims. And he would have put the United States in danger again.