WarSclerotic

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s appearance on the international stage is an extremely important event. The heart wants to believe that Rouhani is eyeing an agreement that would put the brakes on Tehran’s nuclear program, but wisdom seems to indicate that this is one of the largest exercises of fraud in modern history. Democracy’s natural tendency, understandably, is geared toward the first option. But being suspicious of him will be absolutely necessary in the foreseeable future, despite the fact that Washington and Tehran’s foreign ministers met on Thursday night for the first time since 1979.

This does not mean, though, that it is in Israel’s interest to boycott every gesture underlining the difference between Rouhani’s rhetoric and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s offensive statements. It is too bad Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli delegation to leave the assembly hall in New York during the Iranian president’s speech. It would have been better public relations to do otherwise. Israel’s friends in the West, and the Iranians, need to accept Israel’s frank manner of dealing with all the saturating threats.

Although Rouhani’s words may have been appropriate, what about his actions? What reason could the president of a terrorist state possibly give for why he avoided shaking hands with U.S. President Barack Obama, who had welcomed the gesture? Rouhani flew across the ocean and wrote a seductively flattering article about peace. He went on CNN and said what any man with even the tiniest smidgen of integrity would say: that the Holocaust happened and was totally reprehensible. But then, just a few of days later, he denied his comments and had to elucidate his position to the government in Tehran. What happened here?

Was it the salesman’s pitch in two languages? A kind of linguistic Apartheid? Is English excluded from Iranian discourse? Did he condemn the Holocaust in the middle of an English-speaking democracy while uttering something else in Persian? For 65 years, Israelis have gotten used to hearing about difficult translations when Arab leaders were cajoled into saying something that could be interpreted as moderate toward Israel. All of a sudden, there’s no Berlitz Corporation or translators to be found. They have all failed.

The problem is that the democratic world, content with its way and quality of life, people want to hear the nice interpretation of Rouhani’s statements, however erroneous it was. This is the way of the weary world. It does not take preventative military measures, nor diplomatic ones, until the time is too late. The fatigued and frightened nations have laid their impotence bare.

Suspicions are only going to grow. Within a few hours, Rouhani had called on Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Which countries have signed onto that treaty? Iran. Syria. Libya. So what now? Can we really trust them to stand behind their obligations, statements or signatures?

This is a cynical yet predictable attempt by Rouhani to impede negotiations aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring a weapon of mass destruction. We must remain vigilant. Netanyahu will make his speech at the General Assembly just four days from now after his meeting with Obama. He must convey a direct, unequivocal message to the entire forum: The path leading to Iran’s centrifuges does not cross Dimona.