Thursday, May 7, 2015
From: Gary L. Bauer
Netanyahu Leads
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a coalition government last night at the edge of the deadline to form a new government. For the time being, Netanyahu’s coalition controls a bare majority of 61 votes in the Israeli parliament.
Even though Netanyahu won a significant victory, he’s been forced to form a government with smaller parties, meaning that his coalition will be unstable during a very difficult time. To his credit, the prime minister has maintained his focus on the current deal with Iran.
It is a bad deal that will inevitably lead to Iran developing nuclear weapons. I’ll say what Netanyahu cannot say. We know Iran will lie about its compliance with the treaty, but we also know that President Obama will mislead us too.
How can I be so sure? Because he has regularly misled us about domestic and foreign policy issues. Obama misled the country about his position on same-sex marriage.
Obama misled us about keeping doctors and health insurance plans we liked. That was Politifact’s Lie of the Year.
He said he would not raise taxes on the middle class. That was the only way the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, by finding that the individual mandate was a tax, not a penalty.
He was not truthful about Benghazi. And he misled the American people about how close Iran already is to developing a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu’s Warning
A few days ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu said this about Obama’s deal with Iran:
“Preventing Iran from being able to build nuclear weapons is the foremost challenge of our generation. Unfortunately, the Lausanne framework fails to meet this challenge and if it will be realized, it will make the world a much more dangerous place. . . . Now, there are those who say that the Lausanne framework will make Israel safer. As the prime minister of Israel, I can tell you categorically: This deal will endanger Israel, big time.
“But it’s not just Israel that will be endangered. The Middle East and the entire world will be threatened. A better deal is necessary. A better deal is possible. A better deal must and can be achieved. But if not, no deal is better than this bad deal.”
If we know the Iranians will cheat — and they already are cheating — why are we continuing with the charade of negotiating a new deal? Who are the suckers in this game? It’s not Barack Obama and John Kerry. They know what they are doing.
The people being played for suckers are us — the American people. We’re being told to trust the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism with the world’s most destructive weapons. We’re being told this a good deal that will stop Iran’s nuclear program. It is a bad deal and it won’t stop the Islamic Republic from building an Islamic bomb.
Today’s Senate Vote
Many of us worked behind the scenes for months to try to ensure that the president could not make a treaty with Iran without congressional oversight. A very flawed piece of legislation (the Corker bill) passed the Senate Foreign Relations committee last month with a unanimous vote. Frankly, such unanimity was a red flag that the bill was too weak to stop a bad deal.
Essentially, the Corker bill turns the approval process on its head. Historically, presidents have had to make sure they could muster 67 votes in the Senate to ratify treaties as required by the Constitution. But the way this bill has been written, opponents in Congress are forced to come up with 67 votes in the Senate to reject it.
Let me remind you that we are in this position because Obama is refusing to call this deal a treaty and he doesn’t want Congress to review it at all.
I joined my friend Bill Kristol and many others in arguing for a serious debate with votes on tough amendments to improve the Corker bill. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The amendment process unraveled and the Senate voted 98-to-1 to approve the bill.
Senator Tom Cotton stood alone in opposing the bill, saying, “A nuclear-arms agreement with any adversary — especially the terror-sponsoring, Islamist Iranian regime — should be submitted as a treaty and obtain a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate as required by the Constitution.”
In spite of efforts by Christians United for Israel and CUFI Action Fund, a new lobbying group I am directing, as well as many others, the odds are long that this bad Senate bill will not stop Obama’s bad nuclear deal with Iran.
But the fight isn’t over. The deal is still being negotiated, and I promise we will continue to fight it every step of the way.
National Day Of Prayer
Today is the National Day of Prayer, an annual event directed by our friend Shirley Dobson, who, once again, has done an outstanding job. This year’s Honorary Chairman is Dr. Jack Graham. You can read his prayer for our nationhere.
More than 50 members of Congress wrote an open letter to the American people stressing the importance of prayer and America’s rich Judeo-Christian heritage. Read their letter here.
The verse for this National Day of Prayer comes from I Kings 8:28: “Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence this day.” With Christian persecution on the rise overseas and growing intolerance of faith here at home, pray that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would hear our cries.
Advocating For Life
American Values is proud to continue its partnership with the Inspiration Network to promote the values of faith and family, especially the sanctity of life.
Allow me to introduce you to David Egan. David is an inspiring advocate for individuals with disabilities. Sadly, there are some who question the quality of life that people like David might lead. His example reminds us of the dignity of all human life.
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