Saying certain things gets you out of doing certain things. For example, if you say, “I support the troops,” you don’t have to support the troops. You’re free to scream about the mass murder of innocent Iraqis at the hands of blood-thirsty Americans and about the righteous insurgents who are just fighting to protect their homeland. Similarly, if you say “I stand by Israel,” you’re freed up to break bread with Bashar Assad or pay tribute to the charitable work of Hezbollah and just stand on your pronouncement indefinitely.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the latest to play her get-out-of-Israel-support free card in this way. As the Wall Street Journal reports:
Angela Merkel earned Israel’s respect in March by insisting that Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped and that, if necessary, “Germany will push for further sanctions.”
In Merkel’s case, she cashed in her chips in advance. A month before the Chancellor delivered the requisite promise Germany’s Export Control Office okayed a $157 million oil deal with Iran. Not only is Germany still sticking to its Iranian obligations, it is trying to speed up the process. This, presumably an effort to get things done before anything, such as public remonstrations or a war, could halt the process.
The German deal undercuts the EU’s already farcical effort to increase sanctions against the Islamic Republic and establishes the whole sanctions undertaking as a double fantasy. First: Tehran is not threatened by sanctions. The mullahs’ goals are the defeat of the West and the spread of Khomeinist Shi’ism, not attaining a vibrant Iranian economy. Second: we now know these ineffective sanctions are not even being universally applied. The Journal also reports that Germany’s imports from Iran rose 28 percent last year and their exports to Iran are up 13.6 percent in the first quarter. Nothing like the old diplomacy route to fire up international trade.
The next time a head of state passes through the Knesset with a thoughtful and moving speech about standing by Israel they should be obligated to make a return trip in which they catch everyone up on the progress of their brave efforts.
