McCain mocks Obama on Iran during pro-Israel speech ( Calls for Sanctions not Talks with Iran )

Foxnews ^ | June 2nd, 2008 11:45 AM Eastern | Mosheh Oinounou

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Video at Link

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Ridiculing the idea of negotiating with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a “spectacle” that would embolden extremists, McCain jabbed Obama on Iran and Iraq before more than 7,500 members of the highly influential pro-Israel lobbyist group.

“We hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before,” McCain told AIPAC members, adding that Obama is engaging in a “serious misreading of history.”

“It’s hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another,” he noted. “Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.”

Instead, McCain called for a stepped international political and economic sanctions regime against the Iranian government and the country’s banks.

“Rather than sitting down unconditionally with the Iranian president or supreme leader in the hope that we can talk sense into them, we must create the real-world pressures that will peacefully but decisively change the path they are on,” McCain said, arguing that the U.S. should lead an coalition of “like-minded” nations in a sanctions effort if the UN Security Council fails to tighten the noose on the Iranians. He also called for a worldwide divestment campaign against Iran.

In touting the Senate bill passed last fall to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, he mocked Obama opposition to the legislation

“He opposed this resolution because its support for countering Iranian influence in Iraq was, he said, a ‘wrong message not only to the world, but also to the region.’

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HIGHLIGHT

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But here, too, he is mistaken. Holding Iran’s influence in check, and holding a terrorist organization accountable, sends exactly the right message — to Iran, to the region and to the world,” McCain said to a standing ovation.

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The GE Campaign is underway!

[Allegra]

I just watched the video - thanks.

McCain's making a lot of sense on this issue.

[VOR78]

The mocking attacks seem to be a recurring theme, and its probably a smart strategy. By doing so, it makes Obama appear to be naive and lacking in experience. Both are true, of course, but its refreshing to see a Republican candidate have the guts to aggressively point it out.

[gingerky]

I disagree. As long as Obama doesn’t bite back, McCain risks looking old and grumpy.

[Adder]

Bet you won’t see this headlined in the MSM. They don’t want his words disseminated too widely.

McCain’s best weapon will be the debates where the viewing audience is huge and its live. He needs to adpot a Reaganesque posture and zing the guy without mercy.
He can crush this weasely pretender.

[HwyChile]

And Obama’s response sounded weak and false to just about any reader other than the hard left. It is very clear that Obama is weak on national security. McCain knows this and needs to “scare” everyone with this fact.

[Norman Bates]

McCain strikes anew at Obama

The McCain List.
Common sense conservatism

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Obama is the Stealth candidate for the American Hating Lefties like Ayers...and the crowd talked about by Horowitz in his book:

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It’s difficult to imagine they are so blatantly antiAmerican!

See this :

Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left

And a review:

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By	Kat Bakhu (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Hardcover)

I had long wondered why people on the Left had the propensity to speak more positively about people who would slit their throats than they do about their own country, which affords them more freedom and opportunity than anywhere else. David Horowitz has answered that question thoroughly and convincingly in his Unholy Alliance. Where I felt bewildered and confused, I now feel crystal clear. Unholy Alliance is such a great book.

It begins with the leftist movements at the beginning of the 20th Century, and works its way up to the present day, exploring the anti-American attitude of these movements in detail. Horowitz shows that the enemies of the US back then are largely the same group today, operating under the same misperceptions, making the same mistakes, and pursuing the same impossible utopia.

Individual chapters are included on the Patriot Act (I was persuaded that it is a GOOD thing); the democratic flip-flop on Iraq once G.W. Bush implemented what they agreed with Clinton needed to be done; the driving components of the current anti-war movement; as well as chapters on individual personalities who are major spokespeople of the Left. Horowitz covers a lot of ground, and he covers it concisely and clearly. Unholy Alliance is richly informative without ever being boring or plodding.

This book is so illuminating that I simply cannot do justice to it here. I love people who reason so clearly that they help me get my own reasoning clear. Horowitz is just that type of person! In the terrain of mindless clichés (no-blood-for-oil, etc.), he is a breath of real fresh air.

[VOR78]

He potentially runs that risk, no question, but with the deck being so stacked against him by the media, McCain is going to have to take some risks in this election if he wants to win.

[stockpirate]

The question is will McCain meet with Conservatives without conditions?

[Grunthor]

I don’t like McCain one little bit, but there is a lot of truth in your post.

[savedbygrace]

Here’s some stepped pressure: Give Iran 30 days to do whatever it is we want them to do, and if they don’t then issue an order stopping all immigration to the U. S. from Iran.

Follow that 30 days later with an order stopping all immigration from all Muslim nations. Include Saudi Arabia.

Follow that 30 days later with an order stopping all travel to and from all Muslim nations. Add a timetable for ordering all non-U. S. citizens from Muslim nations to return to their home countries.

Watch the pressure the Muslim world puts on Iran.

Heck, he might even threaten to seize Iranian assets in the U. S. That would be dicier, I think.

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From Hot Air:

McCain on Iran: Obama still doesn’t know the history Update: Full speech added< /a>

*****************************EXCERPT************************

posted at 9:30 am on June 2, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

John McCain will address AIPAC’s Policy Conference today, speaking on the subjects of Israel, Iran, and Iraq, and laying out his views on the most critical foreign-policy issues facing the next administration. His speech will reassure the pro-Israeli lobby that he sees the ties between the US and Israel as “the most natural” of alliances, based on mutual respect for freedom and democracy, and acknowledge the singular nature of both in the Middle East. In doing so, he will reflect back on his first introduction to Israel, courtesy of a Democrat who would find it difficult to fit into today’s party:

The cause of Israel, and of our common security, has always depended on men and women of courage, and I’ve been lucky enough to know quite a few of them. I think often of one in particular, the late Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson. I got to know Senator Jackson when I was the Navy liaison to the Senate. In 1979, I traveled with him to Israel, where I knew he was considered a hero. But I had no idea just how admired he was until we landed in Tel Aviv, to find a crowd of seven or eight hundred Israelis calling out his name, waving signs that read “God Bless you, Scoop” and “Senator Jackson, thank you.” Scoop Jackson had the special respect of the Jewish people, the kind of respect accorded to brave and faithful friends. He was and remains the model of what an American statesman should be.

In discussing Iran, McCain refers once again to Democrats, only in this case showing the vapidity of current posturing by Barack Obama. McCain doesn’t refer to Obama by name in this speech, but it’s clear to whom he refers in this passage that also notes that Obama suggests nothing new:

The Iranians have spent years working toward a nuclear program. And the idea that they now seek nuclear weapons because we refuse to engage in presidential-level talks is a serious misreading of history. In reality, a series of administrations have tried to talk to Iran, and none tried harder than the Clinton administration. In 1998, the secretary of state made a public overture to the Iranians, laid out a roadmap to normal relations, and for two years tried to engage. The Clinton administration even lifted some sanctions, and Secretary Albright apologized for American actions going back to the 1950s. But even under President Khatami – a man by all accounts less radical than the current president – Iran rejected these overtures.

Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before. Yet it’s hard to see what such a summit with President Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another. Such a spectacle would harm Iranian moderates and dissidents, as the radicals and hardliners strengthen their position and suddenly acquire the appearance of respectability.

This is part of the history that Barack Obama ignores. Ten years ago, the Clinton administration took some political risk in making these overtures to a supposedly reformist Iranian president. It resulted in no progress whatsoever. Obama says now that he will meet with the Iranians only after some “preparation”. What preparations will he offer that goes beyond the Clinton administration’s efforts to open diplomatic relations?

Barack Obama probably knows little of these efforts. His shifting explanations on “without preconditions” but with “preparations” has revealed nothing about what he would do with direct presidential diplomacy that the efforts of the US and Europe has not accomplished. It reminds one of John Kerry’s “secret” plan on Iraq — a trial balloon with nothing but hot air to keep it aloft.

McCain will continue to exploit this opening all the way to the general election. Unless Obama can explain his own secret plan on Iran, he will continue to look naive and unprepared to conduct foreign policy for the United States.

Update: Added link to the John Kerry Secret Cut-and-Run Plan for Iraq in 2004. Here’s a brief reminder:

John F. Kerry pledged Sunday he would substantially reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq by the end of his first term in office but declined to offer any details of what he said is his plan to attract significantly more allied military and financial support there.In interviews on television talk shows, the Democratic presidential nominee said that he saw no reason to send more troops to Iraq and that he would seek allied support to draw down U.S. forces there. “I will have significant, enormous reduction in the level of troops,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Kerry accused President Bush of misleading the country before the war in Iraq, burning bridges with U.S. allies and having no plan to win peace. But when questioned about saying Thursday in his acceptance speech, “I know what we have to do in Iraq,” he would not tip his hand.

Update II: I’ve added the whole speech here, as McCain has plenty to say about American foreign policy:

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Embedded link at Hot Air... Comments on the preceding post lead to this article , now posted as a FR Thread:

Samantha Power and Obama's Foreign Policy Team

[BOBTHENAILER]

I saw a snippet or two on FOX and I liked it. BURY GE!!!!

[bvw]

Every mock is a signal to the opponent saying "Attack Here!".

By the art of war, one should never mock unless one somehow appears weak at that point. Why? Because the a decent opponent will know enough not to attack, even when mocked, unless one's facade appears weak.

The idea is that a mock in verbal attack is the same as a feint in physical attack. The exceptional case: You can feint against an completely overexcited opponent, one in total chaos, without worrying that he'll see all your strength lined up to face him if he takes the bait.

[Nonstatist]

McCain risks looking old and grumpy.

The old fart has very little else to talk about that would interest conservatives, IMO. Let him rant.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

High volume. Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel, WOT

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[dervish]

McCain’s speech echoes Bibi Netanyahu’s strategy. Netanyahu joined forces with Frank Gaffney (formerly in Reagan Admin) of the Center for Security Policy who started a Divest Terror campaign in the US.

Gaffney http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/home.aspx?sid=56&categoryid=56&subcategoryid=57&newsid=11567

Netanyahu http://web.israelinsider.com/Views/10997.htm

IMO it appears that McCain is signalling an affinity for Likud.