Netanyahu echoes Churchill; Who will listen? Column

On Tuesday in a much anticipated speech before joint session of Congress, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again sounded the warning against Iran's nuclear ambitions and called for "a better deal" than the nuclear agreement currently being negotiated.

Netanyahu drew a strong contrast between liberal democracies like the U.S. and Israel and the revolutionary Islamic regime in Iran. He painted the Islamic Republic as a strategic and ideological threat, and listed Tehran's record of aggression and support for terrorism.

The message was that this regime cannot be trusted. National security adviser Susan Rice admitted Monday that no deal with Iran is better than a bad deal and Netanyahu detailed why. The agreement, he said, "all but guarantee(s)" Iran will get the bomb.

He spoke with a candor and toughness that has been lacking from the White House, noting that Iran continues to operate secret nuclear facilities, play "hide and cheat" with U.N. inspectors and has "proven time and again that they cannot be trusted." He said that we are "much better without" the agreement about to be concluded, and should hold out for "a much better deal." If Iran walks out, call their bluff; "they need the deal a lot more than you do."

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This was Netanyahu's third speech on Capitol Hill, tying the record set by Winston Churchill for the most Congressional speeches by a foreign leader. House Speaker John Boehner presented the Prime Minister with a bust of Churchill as a welcoming gift. Netanyahu is sometimes compared to the wartime British prime minister, for his ability to deliver a stem-winder speech, his strong leadership and political staying power.

Also, like Churchill, Netanyahu has been a voice in the political wilderness, warning of dangerous strategic shifts and growing regional instability. From 1933 onward, Churchill warned of the consequences of Hitler's rising power, Germany's weapons buildup and the overt threats the Nazis made to their neighbors.

British establishment politicians dismissed him as a troublemaker. The Obama administration's argument that a tougher line against Iran might lead to war is reminiscent of pro-appeasement British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's statement in 1936 that the response "to a stiff letter [to Hitler] might not be a stiff reply but a bomb on your breakfast tables." Churchill predicted the failure of the 1938 grand bargain with Hitler at Munich that was supposed to bring "peace in our time," saying "England has been offered a choice between war and shame. She has chosen shame and will get war."

Noting that Churchill was right is not just an exercise in hindsight; it acknowledges his foresight when other British leaders were oblivious. Churchill's genius was taking Hitler's bellicose rhetoric literally.

Rice said Monday that "what matters are Iran's actions, not its words." She is wrong; words matter. Netanyahu believes Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is sincere when he tweets that Israel must be destroyed.

There was a poignant moment during the speech when Netanyahu recognized Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, drawing an explicit link between the consequences of the failure to stop Hitler and the existential threat posed by Iran.

Netanyahu's speech is a warning. Some will heed it, others not. The administration argues that its approach to Iran should be given the benefit of the doubt. But when dealing with a rogue state seeking weapons of mass destruction there is more benefit in doubting.

If Netanyahu is wrong and Iran's intentions are peaceful, taking a harder line with Tehran will not compel the Islamic Republic to develop nuclear weapons. But if Netanyahu is right about Iran, as Churchill was about Hitler, then President Obama ignores him at his peril, and ours.

James S. Robbins writes weekly for USA TODAY and is author of The Real Custer: From Boy General to Tragic Hero.

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