The Real Scandal Is The U.S.'s Embrace Of Iran

Israel's Netanyahu ought to have been welcomed as other foreign leaders are

Foreign dignitaries often visit the United States. Enterprising ones come within a few weeks of an election at home. They usually are met with pomp and, depending on the circumstances, much indifference. Rarely are foreign leaders unwelcome in the U.S. More rarely are they subjected to repeated public ridicule from the White House and organized protests.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an exception. It would be easy to dismiss the vitriol reserved only for a Jewish head of state as pure anti-Semitism. But Netanyahu brings something with him that is highly offensive to our government: a willingness to speak publicly against an evil government. In our non-judgmental, morally relativistic society, few sins are greater and more unforgivable than claiming that a government is evil.

Let us be clear what does not offend our government. Our government is not provoked by personal attacks on the president. Netanyahu had only praise for President Obama in his speech before Congress on March 3. Netanyahu thanked the president not only for his well-known assistance, but also for his less-publicized help, such as help with a forest fire in Carmel in northern Israel.

Nor is the offense that Speaker John Boehner, rather than the State Department, extended the invitation. In 2014, the Dalai Lama addressed a joint session of Congress, even though President Obama would not meet with him publicly for fear of offending China. The idea that the speaker cannot ask a foreign leader to address a joint session of Congress is ludicrous. Foreign leaders come to America on a regular basis.

President Obama does not shy away from involving foreign leaders in U.S. policy. Last January, he invited U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron to meet him, and encouraged him to lobby members of Congress against passing sanctions on Iran. Cameron met with numerous senators, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker. Obama and Cameron held a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House.

Nor is the offense that Netanyahu's Israel is a rogue state. There was no furor from the White House when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University in September 2007, criticizing the United States. No one suggested taking away Columbia's federal funding.

Nor is the offense that Netanyahu will undermine America's bargaining power, such as it is, in negotiations with Iran. Little could give American negotiators more leverage than the images of Netanyahu getting standing ovations in Congress. Rather than criticizing him, the administration should thank Netanyahu for strengthening America's bargaining power in its negotiations with Iran. Of course, getting Iran to back down may not be the real purpose of negotiations in Switzerland.

The United States does not have a good track record in negotiating international agreements under Democrats or Republicans. The agreements between the United States and North Korea negotiated under President George W. Bush have been violated multiple times, and North Korea now has a burgeoning nuclear-weapons program.

Netanyahu's offense is highlighting that Iran is ruled by an evil government. It is an evil government that threatens not only Israel, but also the United States and the rest of the world. Consequently, any treaty has to be approached with caution. As Netanyahu said on March 3: “For over a year, we've been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal. It's a very bad deal. We're better off without it.”

Israel's existence is threatened by Iran. But America's security and sense of right and wrong have been severely damaged by Iran. It is time to stop giving in to them. That simple message is what makes Netanyahu unpopular with the Obama administration.

Under the mullahs, who took over Iran in 1979, Iran changed from a society where women could attend university and have careers to one where they are second-class citizens and have been sold as slaves and punished by stoning. Iran's rulers routinely torture political dissidents.

Not only does Iran treat its own people with cruelty, but it openly calls for the destruction of America and its allies. The takeover of the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979 was only the first step, and was followed by Iranian-funded Hezbollah's bombing of the American embassy in Beirut in April 1983, its attack on the U.S. Marine barracks in October 1983 and other acts of war, none of which Iran was ultimately held accountable for.

Court documents filed by the U.S. government as early as 1998 connected Osama bin Laden with Iran. The indictment of bin Laden for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 stated that: “Al Qaeda … forged alliances with the National Islamic Front in the Sudan and with the government of Iran and its associated terrorist group Hezbollah for the purpose of working together against their perceived common enemies in the West, particularly the United States.”

Iran is one of the main funders of Hamas, the elected party and terrorist organization in the Palestinian territories that is waging war against Israel.

Iran is currently holding American citizens hostage, including a Washington Post reporter. Reporters should be standing up and saying that Iran should release its hostages before we make a deal.

Rather than hold Iran responsible for its past actions against Americans and to seek reparations for those actions, our government prefers to negotiate a basis for legitimizing the nuclear ambitions of a rogue state. The current negotiations will do nothing to hold Iran accountable for its past actions or to stop a future Iran from terrorizing its citizens and waging war against us.

Iran should be at the top of America's list of governments outside the realm of legitimacy. It threatens to destroy America and America's friends around the world, and it develops nuclear weapons to back up its threats. It spreads anti-American venom around the world.

Ultimately, our government should have greeted Netanyahu with the same pomp and indifference it gives other world leaders. The administration has chosen a different approach. That approach betrays not so much a hostility toward Netanyahu as a tragic embrace of the Iranian government. Evil remains a power in our world. Moral relativism is a dangerous concept both for individuals and for government. The sooner our administration recognizes that concept, the safer America will be.

This piece originally appeared in WSJ's Marketwatch

This piece originally appeared in WSJ's MarketWatch