President Biden’s Moment of Truth

President Biden’s first trip, as President, to Israel and the region came at a time of mounting unease. Many of his words came as a salve to a raw, bleeding wound. It is our hope that these words are not merely rhetorical, but are backed up with real, meaningful substance.

Yet, words from a US President go a very long way.

The  major open wound has a name:  and that name is Iran. For those in Israel, whose very lives are on the line, this is not a mere academic question. With a brutal, fanatical regime in Tehran that doesn’t hesitate to arrest and torture its own dissident population–that routinely vows  to wipe Israel off the map– and is progressing rapidly in its means to do so, these are not merely theoretical concerns.

Israel has watched with mounting tension as the Iranian centrifuges have been briskly spinning  enough highly enriched uranium to produce a nuclear weapon, as stated by the International Atomic Energy Administration in May.

When President Biden arrived on the tarmac at Ben Gurian airport Wednesday, he described “the connection between the United States and Israel is  bone deep.  And later on, in an interview he said, the United States would be willing to use military force as a last resort

This comes as welcome words, after the last 18 months, where  we have witnessed the United States waste valuable energy, time and resources on endless rounds of talks with a regime that has used these negotiations as a smokescreen , behind which they have been making galloping strides on its nuclear program.

It also comes as a sharp contrast to the words of the US Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 25, and categorically ruled out the use of military force.

It has become disheartening and dispiriting to watch the P5 plus 1 nations, (France, Britain, Germany, China, Russia, and indirectly, the United States) exhaust themselves with eight rounds of negotiations in Vienna and one round in Doha.

It has become increasingly evident, even to our most died-in-the wool believers in diplomacy such as Mr. Malley, that the Iranians have been playing with us. In a July 5^th interview with National Public Radio after the talks in Doha broke down he said, “They have, including in Doha, added demands that I think anyone looking at this would be viewed as having nothing to do with the nuclear deal, things that they’ve wanted in the past,”, adding, “The discussion that really needs to take place right now is not so much between us and Iran, although we’re prepared to have that. It’s between Iran and itself. They need to come to a conclusion about whether they are now prepared to come back into compliance with the deal.”

While hiding behind the chador of negotiations, Iran has also been hard at work building new, underground facilities so deep underground that they can evade bunker-busting bombs and cyberattacks, such as the one in Natanz

The International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA)  passed a resolution on June 9, condemning Iran for its “lack of cooperation and transparency”. Iran’s response has been to turn off the cameras in 27 of its nuclear facilities

At this point, even  for an administration who had made a campaign pledge to return to the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, patience is finally running thin regarding Iran’s antics.

As I write this, President Biden signed a pledge denying Iran nuclear weapons. The United States has the world’s largest and most capable military at its disposal. We have long maintained that diplomacy, without the credible threat of military force against a brutal dictatorship such as Iran, is meaningless.

A Rubicon has been crossed.

I believe the President is sincere about this commitment. He represents the old, solid guard of the democratic party. One that appreciates the struggles that Israel has had to endure to  exist over its last 74  years, and one that values and understands Jewish history and what our people have gone through over the last two centuries.

This message should resonate loudly, not only in Tel Aviv, but in  Abu Dhabi,  Manama, and Riyad, and in Tehran, Moscow and Beijing. It is the beginning of the long process of repairing the damage of our feckless retreat from Afghanistan, of our lack of response to the Houthi bombings of the Saudi oil fields, the  airport in Abu Dhabi,  and our military bases in Iraq and Syria.

This is President Biden’s moment of truth.  And, even if the use of force never has to be employed, those words alone, resonate very loudly.

And they will go a long way in hopefully, beginning to restore the liberal world order, with America at its helm.