Barack Obama’s Dangerous Mistake

Cicero’s famous words against Catiline, the conspirator, spring to mind: “How long, O Catiline, will you abuse our patience?” It rings out — if I may say so, conscious of a certain degree of lèse-majesté — from one of President Obama’s missteps on foreign policy. Vladimir Putin’s sale of the S-300 missile systems to Iran would require sanctions to be lifted completely and would consequently strengthen Iran’s military arsenal. In a one-hour telephone conversation with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Putin reassured him that the weapons are purely defensive and are not within striking distance of Israel.

That doesn’t stop Iran from transferring these weapons to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, however. Well-versed experts have predicted that the Islamic State, Hamas and other terrorists could simultaneously trigger a new intifada from the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights in the north. If this were to happen, the Jewish state would be threatened by missiles.

The first signs of a future crisis are the numerous recent border attacks and aggressive maneuvers carried out by Hezbollah and units of the Islamic State group in the Golan Heights near the Israeli border. However, Egyptian troops — who want to maintain peace with Israel — are also fighting terrorist elements in the “Wild East” Sinai Peninsula. Hamas continues to incite antagonism toward Israel’s very existence. Furthermore, Hamas possesses countless missiles that continue to increase in range and efficiency.

Nuclearization of the Region

It should be noted that Putin’s attitude towards Russian Jews is explicitly friendly. He is reported to have donated a month’s salary for the construction of a large Jewish museum in Moscow, for example. He also maintains good relations with Russian immigrants in Israel.

The sharper tone of Tehran’s top mullahs, who are calling for the complete removal of sanctions, deals a serious blow to Obama’s appeasement efforts. The situation is exacerbated by Iran’s intensified feud with the Arab League about Yemen and Libya, as well as the increasing distance between the traditional Arab allies of the West and the United States, thereby increasing the danger of an unstoppable nuclearization of the Middle East.

It should finally become clear to the American president that it is necessary to put boots on the ground to fight the Islamic State group, instead of just stamping one’s feet as an accompanying gesture to a moral sermon.