A genuine leader spoke in Washington today, Rush Limbaugh told his radio listeners, and we've waited years to hear one.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long-anticipated speech before a joint session of Congress on the peril posed to Israel -- and the world -- if the Islamist theocrats in Tehran succeed in acquiring nuclear weapons ended shortly before Limbaugh's show began.
Obama's apologists in Congress and the media quickly sought to downplay the significance of Netanyahu's address, Limbaugh pointed out, but their disparagement carries far less weight than the moral authority of his warning. (Audio clip containing four excerpts from Limbaugh's program) --
Nothing focuses the mind and heart like moral, ethical and legal clarity. And today in the House of Representatives chamber, the United States Capitol, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu gave an historically important speech, a speech that any previous American president could have and maybe would have made, a speech to rally and save Western civilization. We are talking about thwarting a plan that gives the world's leading terrorist state, gives this state, we're talking about thwarting a plan being brokered by our administration that gives Iran a certain path to produce nuclear weapons. Iran -- the world's leading exporter of terrorism, the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East. And Benjamin Netanyahu came to the United States today in a desperate plea for the world to focus, to get serious, and take notice of what is happening. It was stunning. I don't know how many of you in the audience here had a chance to see it. ... But I'm going to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it was powerful, and the drive-by media is underselling this. ....
The optics of this speech were just so overwhelmingly powerful and when I say, what could have been, this was leadership, this was leadership in full force. Benjamin Netanyahu today was everything Barack Obama is not -- everything. This speech today even featured Netanyahu turning to a guest in the gallery, much like presidents who deliver State of the Union speeches. Netanyahu's guest, Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor. This speech, as I say, historically important, moral, ethical and legal clarity, nothing like that combination to focus the mind. And this speech was all about rallying and saving Western civilization which is what is under assault.Here's some excerpts from what Netanyahu said ... 'The Iran regime is not merely an Israel problem just like the Nazi regime was not just a Jewish problem.' ...'The greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam and nuclear weapons.' ... 'Many hope that Iran will join the community of nations while Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.' And by the way, that highlights one of the stark differences between the differences between the Obama administration's approach to all of this and what the approach is in opposition to Obama. The Obama administration believes that they have no right to tell any nation what they can or can't do, particularly and especially involving nuclear weapons. And so, what the Obama administration is relying on is, go ahead and give 'em a timeframe where they can get the bomb in ten years, but in that timeframe we will persuade them never to use it. ....
And this highlights the hubris and arrogance of Obama, that speeches and words can tame tyrants. We've already seen after six years that that promise of Barack Obama, back in 2008, has fallen flat. People elected Obama in 2008 with the belief that speeches and words and intelligence could tame the world's tyrants and make them once again love the United States, which they had only recently begun to hate because of George W. Bush! Well, after six years of Obama's speeches and persuasion and ego and arrogance, the world is on fire. It is less safe than when Obama arrived on the scene. Speeches, words, persuasion will never work. Ask Neville Chamberlain, ask anybody who has asked a tyrant to stop being a tyrant! But this highlights the difference. That is the Obama approach. Even though Obama only has two more years in office, he still believes that the power of his personality and his community organizer skills or whatever that he can persuade Iran after they get the nuke not to use it.
The Israeli approach is prevention -- do not let them get the bomb. Don't take the risk. Don't rely on a nation which has a 36-year track record of terrorism, all of a sudden getting up one day and becoming nice guys....
You know what the White House response to the speech already is -- a bunch of useless, empty rhetoric and no action. ... Imagine that assessment from this administration -- a bunch of useless rhetoric and no action. This was a call to action, a call to a specific type of action that's much different than the rhetoric we are getting from this administration, and rhetoric is all we get. He said this deal does not block Iran's path to the bomb, it paves Iran's path to the bomb. Do you realize, ladies and gentlemen, the powerful accusation contained in just that sentence? ... This was a direct punch. ...
But I'm telling you, folks, this was leadership, this was fearlessness. This speech today has a lot of people wishing we had this kind of forceful, moral, ethical clarity leading our own country. And there will be a lot of Democrats, of course, who disagree with that profoundly. Don't expect this to unify anything. But what this is going to do and what it did was expose the abject weakness in the United States' position on this whole concept of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Limbaugh also wasted no time in creating a parodic response to the speech from Obama (heard at the end of the embedded audio).
Best example so far of media bias against Netanyahu, and coming right out of the gate after his speech -- CNN foreign affairs correspondent Christiane Amanpour shabbily comparing the Israeli leader to nuke mad-bomber Dr. Strangelove (an ex-Nazi, not incidentally). "The same was said of the Soviet Union all those years ago," Amanpour hastened to add, alluding to the Evil Empire -- and unintentionally validating Netanyahu's warning about Iran.
