It's 1938 all over again

It's 1938 all over again

By Melanie Phillips

The West missed its cues last time. With established historical precedent there's no excuse to dismiss Iran's stated goals as hyperbole One of Europe's most outspoken columnists -- and the winner of the prestigious Orwell Prize for journalism -- has the guts to say what few others will

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When Hassan Rouhani was elected President of Iran, Western leaders declared, in the teeth of stark evidence to the contrary, that this man was a reformer. So they rushed to do a deal with him over Iran's nuclear program, considered by the West to be a threat to the free world.

But Rouhani does not run Iran. The man who actually calls the shots — the only man who matters — is Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Earlier this week, Khamenei said the Jews of Israel

'cannot be called humans, they are like animals, some of them'

and that Israel was

'the rabid dog of the region'.

What do you do with rabid dogs? That's right: you put them down. That's what Khamanei intends to do to the Jews of Israel. That's why he says Israel is 'doomed to collapse' and why his regime has repeatedly declared it will wipe Israel 'off the page of history'. Dehumanizing the Jews: ring any bells? Know what happened next? But it's not just the Jews who are in Iran's sights. It's the West, upon which it has been waging a self-declared war since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

'Death to America! Death to Israel!' chanted the crowd in response. Yup, that's the agenda. Always has been. And they mean it.

That's why Iran wants nuclear weapons. That's why its nuclear program poses such a mortal threat not just to Israel but to Britain, America and Europe. That's why Iran is the principal terrorist regime in the world and why it has murdered countless Western victims. That's why Britain, America and Europe said it was 'unthinkable' that Iran should be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The most stunning aspect of the Iranian war against the West, however, is that since 1979 the West has effectively denied that it is taking place. When its civilians were murdered in terrorist atrocities with Iran's fingerprints all over them, when its soldiers were blown up in Iraq by Iranian roadside bombs, when British Royal Navy personnel were kidnapped at gunpoint by Iranian forces on the high seas and held hostage for 13 days, the West turned the other way and refused to retaliate.

Iran has been protected throughout by a mysterious cloak of denial and paralysis. The West took the decision that acts of Iranian aggression and mass murder were to be absorbed without any response. For the West, war with Iran has always been seen as infinitely worse than war by Iran — regardless of the body count of its innocent victims. And now this suicidal farce has reached its last act — with the West tragically still in appeasement mode.

Obama's White House and Britain's Foreign Office, not to mention the apology for a statesman that is Baroness Ashton, the EU's Foreign Affairs High Representative, are gagging to do a deal with the Khamenei regime — even though this has made it crystal clear that it will never yield at all on the central demand that it halt its progress towards nuclear weapons. What is currently on the table is a deal that will allow Iran to keep all its centrifuges and proceed inexorably to make its nukes, with the sanctions that have finally begun to bite being eased in return for precisely nothing. The West is now on the verge of handing to Iran on a plate what it once said was 'unthinkable'. Obama, Ashton and Cameron might as well go to Tehran and wave a white flag.

There are persistent if unconfirmed reports that a deal with Iran was stitched up long ago by the very radical Valerie Jarrett, Obama's most trusted and Iranian-born adviser. Whether or not this is true, what we are seeing playing out before our eyes could hardly be more disturbing. Presented with unambiguous evidence of the Supreme Leader's genocidal prejudice towards the Jews of Israel, the Obama administration merely flapped the limpest of wrists. A spokesman said Khamenei's remarks were 'not helpful', while Secretary of State John Kerry said: 'Obviously we disagree with it profoundly'.

'Disagree profoundly' that the Jews are not human and like 'rabid dogs', eh. As if psychopathic racism is a debating-society proposition! But then, this is the same Kerry who told American law-makers to ignore any concerns the Israelis might express and to stop listening to them. After all, who cares what the putative victims of genocide say when they are only Jews who are still banging their own unhelpful drum! Only after Israel had expressed shock at the US response was Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN (who herself has a history of deeply questionable attitudes towards Israel) wheeled out to call Khamanei's remarks 'abhorrent'. Who do they think they're kidding? The hostility towards Israel being displayed by the Obama administration is as clear as it is shocking.

That's it. The entire foundation of this agreement isn't a matter of what was technical. The rationale being offered by US officials in background briefings is no less jaw-dropping. This is how it goes. Measures to stop Iran from making the nuclear bomb will make the regime even more determined to make the bomb. So it's smart not actually to stop Iran making the bomb. But not stopping it making the bomb, allowing the centrifuges to spin and enrichment to continue, also means it will make the bomb. So it's win-win for Iran. World loses.

How's that hope'n'change thingy working out for you right now?

We are indeed now facing the unthinkable. Not just that Iran is on the verge of being allowed to proceed to nuclear capability. The really unthinkable reality is that the enemies of the civilized world are not just to be found in Tehran. They are also in London, Brussels and Washington DC.