Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech on Thursday before the U.N. General Assembly was profoundly significant. In certain parts he took on the role of historian, in other parts a high-school physics teacher, and at times a rabbi, preaching to cultivate the Jewish faith, reminding the world that the Jews have lived in the Land of Israel for thousands of years and have survived countless oppressors and bitter enemies. This fact, for some reason, often escapes our neighbors' recollection. Netanyahu's speech was the speech of a leader who is dealing with the uranium-enriching centrifuges of a dark Iranian regime centrifuges that don't stop spinning while the West is engaged in dialogue with the ayatollahs. Netanyahu has visited the U.N. headquarters in New York countless times. The setting is not especially welcoming, but Netanyahu was wise enough to turn it into his home turf. Standing at the podium, Netanyahu mentioned that he has been talking about the need to stop Iran from gaining nuclear capability for 15 years. But as fate would have it, it turned out to be precisely on his watch that Iran would come so close to getting a bomb. A matter of months. The Iranians are barreling toward a nuclear weapon, and may have one by next spring, or next summer at the latest, he explained. By then, Iran will have moved on to enriching uranium at the highest level. It will really be a matter of months then. It is no wonder that talking about a red line wasn't enough he literally drew a red line on a diagram. His aim is not to launch an attack tomorrow, but to prevent a war. Just as history has taught us. Netanyahu built his career on his position as Israel's ambassador to the U.N. It is no wonder that it is at the U.N. headquarters, of all places, that he gave the speech of a lifetime. True, some may look at Netanyahu's bomb diagram and think that there was something less than serious about it, but it is not his drawing skills that concern us, it is the impact that his speech will have. The prime minister of Israel didn't neglect to remind the world that we are in the midst of a clash of civilizations. It seems that he has carefully read the theory put forth by Samuel Huntington. Extremist Islam is not a threat only to Israel, but also to Europe and the U.S. Iran without a nuclear bomb is dangerous enough. Imagine that same Iran on the day after. Thursday's speech should have been made by the leader of the free world. Unfortunately, the man who holds this title U.S. President Barack Obama chose to give an address devoid of anything new, leaving Netanyahu to talk about the dangers facing all of civilization.
