I wasn’t there when Babe Ruth hit home run number 714. I wasn’t there when Hank Aaron hit his new record 755. I wasn’t there when Barry Bonds hit homer 762 controversial as it was.
But I was present, in the gallery March 4, 2015, when Benyamin Netanyahu hit a game-deciding home run in his meeting in a rare joint session with both houses of the United States Congress. It was a historic moment, never to be forgotten by any of the thousands who were there … and the millions who watched it on television.
When he stepped to the plate on the speakers podium, after perhaps the longest, most appreciative standing welcome ever to take place in that hall, the future of Israel, the whole Middle East, and to a great extent, America and the world, were on the line.
How’s that for pressure? And Netanyahu delivered.
He started with a friendly nod to Harry Reid and to Nancy Pelosi, rolling her eyes from her front row seat, and then tipped his hat with surprising grace to President Obama, thanking him for ways in which he had approved aid at one time or another to our only real ally in the Mideast, Israel.
At no time did he reference, or seem to care about, the harsh criticism, denigration and outright insults those three had hurled at him publicly since he had accepted the invitation from the Congress to come and address them.
He turned the other cheek, literally, and proved therewith what a real leader, a real man, he is.
Then, with one long, powerful swing, he knocked the ball out of the park. It is truly a moment, an achievement, that history will record as a world changer.
How so?
Sitting in the gallery, I was remembering what I’d learned about Neville Chamberlain, then prime minister of England before Winston Churchill, who was confronted with the menace and duplicity of both Hitler and Stalin.
In discussions and negotiations with them, he chose to believe their superficial claims of good will and innocent intentions. He continued to persuade the British they could trust those dictators, through his negotiating skill and relationships with them, right up to Hitler’s invasion of most of Europe and bombing of England.
The Second World War ensued though Chamberlain’s “temporary” replacement Churchill stood courageously and helped lead our allies and us to an eventual victory. But many thousands of lives were lost, due significantly to the misreading of the tyrants in the early innings.
And when Netanyahu stood in the chamber to address Congress, and our nation, the situation is exactly the same. Very powerful forces, spread across the Mideast, but centered in the diabolical theocracy that is Iran, have already demonstrated what their goal is — total destruction of Israel and domination of the whole world — and they are rapidly, diligently, preparing to become a nuclear power with evil intentions.
Meanwhile, our president tries to sweet talk and charm and mildly threaten the ideological leaders of Iran into rational, humanitarian behavior, while their deeply held religious yearnings are to bring on Armageddon!
Iran believes that the Third World War will bring on their Mahdi, their version of the Messiah, who will reward their bloody triumph with world domination, and a Muslim ruled “peace," and the everlasting reward of their Allah.
It’s impossible to believe that Barack Obama is ignorant of Iran’s intentions or really believes their leaders’ smokescreens and false claims, taking into account his upbringing and theological indoctrination. Is he another Neville Chamberlain or worse?
He actually reinforces the latter by stating, in so many words, that his 10-year plan to “delay” Iran’s nuclear ambitions is somehow better informed than Netanyahu’s, the leader of the only democratic nation in the Mideast, which faces extinction if that plan goes forward.
I guarantee you that Israel’s intelligence and awareness of what Iran is doing is twice that of our State Department. Their very lives are at stake!
Contrary to what the president claimed immediately after the speech, Netanyahu did propose an alternative plan, one for Congress to detail, that would greatly increase the sanctions on Iran and their trade partners, and demand that they publicly disavow their long-held determination to utterly destroy Israel and to bring about a world ruled by Shariah law. It was specific and clear, and vastly better than what Obama is promoting.
But, in this conflict, there is yet another one to be heard from.
God Almighty. Jehovah.
In his word, the Bible, He has foreseen and foretold all of this. And Netanyahu knows this. He didn’t leave God out of the discussion or the considerations. He referred to Purim, Queen Esther, and the deliverance of the Jews from destruction by decree of another Persian leader, Ahasuerus.
Netanyahu knows well that it wasn’t the might, or arms, or even the courage of the Jews that delivered them from certain annihilation — it was fasting and prayer and deep faith in their God.
He knows well the text in Exodus 6, "I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. I will bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!”
The most dramatic declaration of the prime minister’s speech came when he said, “
Even if we have to stand alone, Israel will stand.” That’s when the ball sailed out of the park, landing in the outer court of heaven itself.
He knows Israel will never stand, or walk, alone. Woe to dictators or untutored presidents or evil enemies who think they can destroy or displace Israel.
They must deal with GOD.
Pat Boone's public career spans a half-century, during which he has been a top-selling recording artist, the star of a hit television series, a movie star, a Broadway headliner, and a best-selling author. He is also a great-great-grandson of the legendary pioneer Daniel Boone. Read more reports from Pat Boone — Click Here Now.
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