Better Keep Your Eye On The Middle East Again

Oh, boy.  There's always tension over there, but it seems that things are getting very serious now:

The Obama administration is preparing to cut a disastrously bad nuclear bargainwith Iran that relieves enormous economic pressure on Tehran without requiring the mullahs to dismantle a single centrifuge. The Israelis are stunned. Top officials feel betrayed by the White House, including by reports that the White House has secretly been easing sanctions for months. There have long been tensions between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu. ...

"These critical days in November will be remembered for years to come," said Naftali Bennett, a top Israeli Cabinet official. "The Free World stands before a fork in the road with a clear choice: Either stand strong and insist Iran dismantles its nuclear-weapons program, or surrender, cave in and allow Iran to retain its 18,500 centrifuges. Years from now, when an Islamic terrorist blows up a suitcase in New York, or when Iran launches a nuclear missile at Rome or Tel Aviv, it will have happened only because a Bad Deal was made during these defining moments. Like in a boxing match, Iran's regime is currently on the floor. The count is just seconds away from 10. Now is the time to step up the pressure and force Iran to dismantle its nuclear program. Not to let it up.

The Obama administration has apparently been betraying both Israel and the American people, who still largely support our Middle Eastern ally.  I remember back in 2008 before Obama became President there were any number of warning signs about the anti-Semitic advisers he placed around himself (one was even an actual Palestinian terrorist informant, if I recall correctly).  But the media ignored those things, and at the time every other issue was dominated by the economic problems going on, so they simmered underneath the surface.  Unfortunately, they have now bubbled up to the top, and a new kind of brinksmanship may be in process.  This time, however, it's a brinksmanship between the American President working with the terrorist Iranian regime...and against the American ally.

In fact, Western nations aren't the only ones who are concerned about Obama's clear desire to capitulate to Iran:

As details emerge of the deal the U.S. is about to cut with Iran — a deal that would not dismantle a single Iranian centrifuge and would leave Tehran in striking distance of rapidly building an arsenal of nuclear weapons — leaders of moderate Arab states in the Persian Gulf are horrified. They deeply fear a nuclear-armed Iran and have long pressed the White House to do everything necessary to stop this from happening. Now they fear they are being betrayed.

"A deal with Iran would be like discovering your partner of many years is cheating on you with someone he or she claims they hate," a senior Arab official from a U.S. ally in the region told the Wall Street Journal.

The Saudis, reportedly, are in the process of purchasing nuclear warheads from Pakistan, so convinced they have become that the Obama administration has no idea how to stop Iran.

While it's a travesty that it took a rare spine-filled moment on the part of France to stop the deal in the works over the weekend, at least someone acquired some sanity in the nick of time:

On Friday and for much of Saturday, it seemed as if the U.S. was going to persuade the leaders of the P5+1 group to sign a disastrous "first-step" deal with Iran. The deal would have made enormous concessions but allowed Iran to keep enriching uranium, keep spinning their centrifuges, keep building advanced new centrifuges, and not being required to dismantle a single centrifuge.

Israel immediately and very publicly objected to the contours of the deal upon learning of the details on Friday afternoon. But a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli PM Netanyahu went so badly that the two weren't able to hold a joint news conference before Kerry left Israel for Geneva in hopes of finalizing the deal.

The situation looked very grim from the Israeli perspective for most of Friday and Saturday, with the Iranians signaling they expected to sign a deal by Saturday evening at the latest.

Then suddenly, out of the blue, the French delegation objected to the proposed U.S. deal.

"As I speak to you, I cannot say there is any certainty that we can conclude" the talks, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on French radio according to the Reuters news agency, noting that France could not accept a "sucker's deal."

...

Iranian leaders were stunned by the last minute turn of events that went against them.

New discussions are underway between the U.S. and Israel, but with President Obama and Sec. of State John Kerry running those talks on our side, it seems unlikely that any real support of Israel -- or genuine deterrent of Iran -- is going to materialize.  The tension keeps mounting...better keep your eyes on it.