Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left no doubt this evening about what is required to halt the development of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, nor about his determination to ensure that the program is stopped before nuclear weapons capability is reached.

In an unequivocal follow-up message to President Obama's statement yesterday, affirming his "firm belief in finding a diplomatic solution...", a statement that was made from the same AIPAC podium, Prime Minister Netanyahu emphasized, "Israel has waited patiently for the international community to resolve this issue. We’ve waited for diplomacy to work. We’ve waited for sanctions to work."

He then read from an original letter from the World Jewish Congress, in 1944, to the U.S. War Department, urging the U.S. to bomb Auschwitz, and from a letter giving the the American response: "Such an operation could be executed only by diverting considerable air support essential to the success of our forces elsewhere…and in any case, it would be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not warrant the use of our resources…Such an effort might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans."

"Think about that," he emphasized, 'even more vindictive action' — than the Holocaust." To a standing ovation, he then stated, "My friends, 2012 is not 1944. The American government today is different ... The Jewish people are also different. Today we have a state of our own! And the purpose of the Jewish state is to defend Jewish lives and to secure the Jewish future!

Going much further than President Obama, who stated yesterday that "All options are on the table... and that includes military options..." Prime Minister Netanyahyu's message had the unmistakable tone of the immortal message of George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it."

Netanyahyu went on to illustrate the ineffectiveness of sanctions and to repeat his underlying theme of the need for effective results: "For the last decade, the international community has tried diplomacy. It hasn’t worked. For six years, the international community has applied sanctions. That hasn’t worked either. I appreciate President Obama’s recent efforts to impose even tougher sanctions against Iran. These sanctions are hurting Iran’s economy, but unfortunately, Iran’s nuclear program continues to march forward." 

He then followed with his key message, "None of us can afford to wait much longer. I promise you that as Prime Minister, I will never gamble with the security of the State of Israel. As Prime Minister of Israel, I will never let my people live under the shadow of annihilation."

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Editor's note: For a perceptive analysis of  where the differences between Netanyahu and Obama may lie, read Lenny Ben David's article in The Times of Israel , http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/obamas-passover-seder-at-aipac-does-the-policy-contain-bitter-herbs/. Obama repeated the phrase  in  his speech  that it was US policy  “prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Ben David asks whether this expresses a policy decision to limit American reaction only to the final act of a “obtaining a nuclear weapon?,”  as opposed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear capability , which would  occur prior thereto.

David Horovitz, founding editor of the Times of Israel (former editor of the Jerusalem Post) notes that Netanyahu said his "supreme responsibility as prime minister of Israel is to ensure that Israel remains the master of its fate.”

Horovitz concludes: "Read between the lines of  [Netanyahu's ] remarks and what you get is: Make no mistake, Israel will have no alternative but to act if it feels its survival is in jeopardy. So, please, Mr. President, do what you need to do to make sure we don’t find ourselves in that position.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mr-president-do-what-you-need-to-do-to-ensure-that-we-dont-feel-our-survival-is-at-stake/