Will a Stitch in Time Save a War?

On March 3, my wife and I spent 43 minutes watching Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. House and Senate to express his utter disagreement with the terms of the understanding the U.S. and allies are negotiating with Iran.
President Obama had made his objections to Netanyahu’s address vehemently known. Many asked why Netanyahu would jeopardize Israel’s security by so offending the president of the very land on which Israeli’s security is in great measure based.
After listening to his remarks, the answer to that question became clear. In the life of nations, it is a short-range agreement, 10 years, and after that, Iran is free to do as she pleases. Any value in this agreement presupposes that Iran in fact keeps the terms of the agreement during its duration – something it has totally failed to do over the course of the prior agreements.
Iran has made it clear to the world that it wants nothing less than the total destruction of Israel. Unlike our president and our allies in the agreement, Netanyahu takes them at their word. We ask ourselves, how can we listen to Iran’s repeated statements that it is going to destroy Israel and still enter into an agreement that enables them to continue preparations.
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Awake. See the world’s facts as they are. Make a plan.
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We don’t have to look back into ancient history to find the answer to that question; we only have to go back to the 1930s. In his book, Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote his intentions for Germany to dominate Europe, and then started taking steps toward the fulfillment. Despite that, the world leaders continued to negotiate with him, thinking they could avert the coming destruction through dialogue.
Hitler bought time through such talks while he prepared for his domination. One man’s lone voice, that of Winston Churchill, continued warning the British parliament that disaster was coming, but the leaders continued to hope against hope that Hitler did not mean what he said. He did mean it, and because the leaders did not act early, when Hitler was weak, the world had to endure the horrors of World War II.
It is difficult to watch Netanyahu’s speech without flashing back to Churchill standing before Parliament, trying to awaken them out of their pipe dream of negotiating with Hitler instead of taking action. Early on, France and England were substantially stronger than Germany, and could have put an end to Hitler at a fraction of the cost in human life and treasure that World War II extracted.
Iran is currently weak, just as Germany was at that point in time, and its leadership is every bit as fanatical and focused as was Hitler’s.
Why did Netanyahu gamble so much in his affront to President Obama? Because, in the long term, Israel has much more to lose by his remaining silent. He sees, as Churchill did, disaster coming for his nation. He is not alone in these concerns.
Columnist Peggy Noonan summarized the worries of generals and former secretaries of state before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Jan. 29. Their message is: Awake. See the world’s facts as they are. Make a plan.
From the Bible: Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Proverbs 4:6