Benjamin Netanyahu Is Churchill Again

Dave has posted the full text of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to AIPAC yesterday. I would encourage you to read or listen to the whole thing but I’m going to draw out two highlights.

I’ve written a few times about Netanyahu alluding to the words of Churchill in his speeches (Hugh Fitzgerald Follows My LeadThe Religion Of Blood And War) and yesterday was no exception. The following passage, towards the end of the speech is interesting:

We deeply appreciate the great alliance between our two countries. But when it comes to Israel’s survival, we must always remain the masters of our fate.

Two of the six volumes in his Second World War memoir are entitled “The Grand Alliance” and “The Hinge of Fate”. He’s hiding them a bit deeper this time.

The second passage should be the takeaway from the whole piece.

I’ve heard these arguments before. In fact, I’ve read them before — In my desk, I have copies of an exchange of letters between the World Jewish Congress and the United States War Department.

Here are the letters:

The year was 1944. The World Jewish Congress implored the American government to bomb Auschwitz. The reply came five days later. I want to read it to you.

“Such an operation could be executed only by diverting considerable air support essential to the success of our forces elsewhere…

and in any case, it would be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not warrant the use of our resources…”

And, my friends, here’s the most remarkable sentence of all, and I quote:

“Such an effort might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans.”

Think about that – “even more vindictive action” — than the Holocaust.

My Friends,

2012 is not 1944. The American government today is different. You heard it in President Obama’s speech yesterday.

But here’s my point:

The Jewish people are also different. Today we have a state of our own. And the purpose of the Jewish state is to defend Jewish lives and to secure the Jewish future.

Never again will we not be masters of the fate of our very survival. Never again.

That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.

10 thoughts on “Benjamin Netanyahu Is Churchill Again”

  1. Jim from Iowa

    OK, at first I just thought this talk of pre-WW II Churchill comparisons with Netanyahu and the Iranian nuclear threat was just a right-wing talking point. But I just read the very same kind of parallels on Ha’aretz. This is troubling because it shows how far apart Israelis and Americans are right now. We Americans see the situation much more analagous to Iraq, 2003 and the bad intelligence and poor political decisions the Bush Administration made. If we can agree on anything we can agree that President Obama knows how to read public opinion polls and they reveal Americans’ disapproval of American intervention in Iran. Of course a military success by Israel will have a 100 fathers, but I’m sensing it’s looking more like an orphan instead.

    1. None of us have have any idea what Israel’s plans are or what their capabilities are. They have surprised us many times before. I alluded to their following Teddy Roosevelt’s advice about soft voices and big sticks, but they tend to keep those sticks under wraps until they have to use them, and while their moves might be surprising, they are seldom illogical.

    2. We Americans do not see this as like Iraq 2003. And opinion polls (unfortunately) strongly support an attack on Iran.

      the heck are you talking about, Jim?

      1. Jim from Iowa

        Take the most recent poll on this subject, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released this week. It is important how the question is asked, but only 26% of Americans support an American strike on Iran to destroy their nuclear capablity if they are still only developing the capability of acquiring nuclear weapons. The Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff is very dubious about the complete and long-term destruction of an Iranian nuclear program as a result of an American strike.

        Where are you getting your information, juvanya, The Weekly Standard?

        1. Well, I think there is a semantic issue about “only developing” the capacity for weapons. Once Iran has the pieces, it’s a matter of days to “top off” the enriched uranium to weapons grade and assemble the bombs and put them on missiles and planes.

          1. As Jim says, it depends on how the question is asked. Try asking people if they favor a strike to knock out/reduce Iran’s capacity if Iran is a week away from a ready-to-use bomb.

            And let’s remember, once Iran has the bomb, they can deliver it not only to Israel, but to most of Europe. So the US is in once they are nuke capable.

  2. The problem is Churchill is hated by the likes of Obama.recall the bust of him that Obama returned to Britain.

  3. Thank you, I have recently been searching for information approximately this subject for a long time and yours is the greatest I’ve came upon so far. However, what in regards to the conclusion? Are you positive about the source?|What i do not realize is in fact how you’re no longer really much more well-appreciated than you might be now. You are so intelligent.

  4. Freedom loving peoples around the world must stand with Israel, they can’t afford to let Iran acquire nuclear weapons. Israel is a tiny country it would only take two nukes to cause a second holocaust and the Iranian regime much like all qaeda are genocidal maniacs, suicidal Islamofascists. That is the bottom line.

    The Iranian regime must be stopped.

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