Just last week President Obama gave a special address via a webcast to the members of the Jewish Federation. His purpose was to try to convince American Jews on the merits of the Iranian nuclear deal. Unfortunately, his statements lacked substance and the questions asked were softball in nature, never addressing any of the concerns. Compare that with the interview that Senator Ted Cruz gave to American Thinker on the dangers of this deal.

Even though President Obama said to check the facts, he offered none. He told his mostly Jewish audience that Iran “is antagonistic to the U.S., it is anti-Semitic, it has denied the Holocaust, and has called for the destruction of Israel. It is an unsavory regime.” Yet, he espouses that this deal accomplishes his goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and preserving the U.S. bond with Israel. Willing to ignore Iranian rhetoric, the president is also ignoring the possibility of an existential danger. As former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren noted, “Remember that American Jewry once had a chance to save six million Jews. And there are six million today in Israel. This is about our survival as a people. It’s about our children and grandchildren.”

Senator Cruz agrees with the ambassador: “The U.S. and Israel are joined by the Iranian rhetoric that calls Israel ‘The Little Satan,’ and the U.S. ‘The Big Satan.’ Their intention is to murder both of us. We face an enemy that hates us and has been very explicit that they intend to do everything they can to kill Israelis and us. These enemies are driven by a radical theological view that glorifies death and suicide.  This deal harkens back to the Munich Deal of 1938, allowing homicidal maniacs to acquire weapons of mass murder. ”

In his book, A Time For Truth, the senator stated, “Iran has for thirty years positioned itself as the implacable foe of America and our allies.” Senator Cruz told American Thinker that the Obama administration has systematically demonstrated hostility and antagonism toward Israel while making overtures towards Iran. The senator is not of the belief that somebody saying they want to kill you or your friend should be ignored. He said, “This is part and parcel for how the Obama/Clinton foreign policy has treated our allies across the world, a pattern of disrespect and abandonment. No nation has received more hostility and contempt than Israel.” 

If the president considers himself to be a friend of Israel, as he stated a number of times during the web interview, then he is betting Israel’s survival on hope and change. During last week’s web interview he said, “We created a verification and inspection mechanism across the entire nuclear production chain within Iran that is unprecedented in history. It is more rigorous than has ever been negotiated in the history of non-nuclear proliferation… This deal relies on verification and our capacity to catch them when they cheat.”

With September 11th a little over a week away, Senator Cruz wonders if President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Kerry have learned anything from 9/11. He feels they do not understand that the Iranian government “begins from the premise that radical Islamist terrorists have a messianic mission to murder Americans and Israelis. This is somehow perfectly compatible with allowing these dictators to possess weapons that could murder millions all at once. As horrific an enemy as Osama Bin Laden was he never possessed the resources or weapons to murder millions at a time. The inspection regime the president talks about being put in place is laughable and farcical. The homicidal vision of the Ayatollah Khomeini is being accelerated and facilitated by the naivety and utopian short sightedness of the Obama/Clinton/Kerry foreign policy. ”

This deal includes giving the Iranians over a hundred billion dollars, which will allow them to acquire weapons to carry out their goals. According to Senator Cruz, “The Obama Administration will become the leading financier of radical Islamist terrorism. Billions of dollars will go to Iran that will be passed on to terrorists across the world to murder Americans and Israelis. A consequence of this deal will be that the Obama administration will have directly financed the next 9/11.  Even Osama Bin Laden never had that kind of money. This will give the Iranian zealots the resources to carry out these murderous plots.”

Yet, the president is willing to kick the can down the road as long as he does not have to take the responsibility for standing up to Iran. He told the Jewish audience, “We are not giving away anything in this deal in terms of our capacity to respond if they chose to cheat.  We are not giving up our ability to respond militarily, we are not giving up our ability to impose sanctions, any of the tools that critics of the deal are suggesting we could be applying now. We will be able to apply them in fifteen years, but we will have the advantage of a deal. Anybody sitting in my chair fifteen years from now will be in a much stronger position to respond if Iran decides to breakout than a president would next year or the year after.”

Americans need to understand, according to the senator, that a “commander-in-chief needs the clarity of vision and resolve to stand up and defeat the Iranians. We cannot stand up to them with a president unwilling to utter the words ‘Islamic radical terrorist.’ We need a commander-in-chief that makes clear to every militant across the globe if you take up arms and wage Jihad against America and our allies you are signing your own death warrant.”

The senator is hoping Democrats will come around and stand with Republicans to make this a bipartisan issue.  He wants everyone to join him and Donald Trump on September 9th at a rally in Washington DC against the deal.  He commented to American Thinker, “There was a time when Democrats like Scoop Jackson, JFK, and Joe Lieberman believed in strong national security, were willing to defend the safety of this nation, and stand with our friend and ally, the nation of Israel.  Sadly, these types of Democrats are becoming more and more rare.  It is my hope that in the coming weeks we see the reemergence of these past Democrats who will decide to protect the safety of millions of lives over partisan loyalty to the Obama White House.  We should be encouraged that a handful of Democrats have demonstrated that courage including, notably Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY).  I have praised him profoundly for standing up against this deal, valuing national security, and standing with the nation of Israel.”

In listening to President Obama and speaking with Senator Cruz it becomes more obvious that this deal is catastrophic.  The president said in fifteen years the U.S. would be in a better position to deal with Iran if they break out. But thanks to this deal they could have a nuclear bomb, more conventional arms, ballistic missiles, and the money from sanction relief to finance terrorism. So how is the president in a stronger position? 

As Senator Cruz said “If the votes were based on the merits of this deal it should be 100 to nothing against it. An editorial cartoon summed up the foolishness of this administration’s views.  It shows the Ayatollah Khomeini proclaiming death to all Americans and then shows John Kerry countering, ‘can we meet you halfway.’ We cannot compromise with zealots whose only objective is to murder our allies and us.”

The author writes for American Thinker.  She has done book reviews, author interviews, and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.