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RUSH: Wow. Holy cow. Just wow. Man, what have we been missing for the last six-plus years, what could have been?

Greetings, my friends, and welcome, Rush Limbaugh, coming to you today from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. The telephone number if you want to be on the program’s 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

Nothing focuses the mind and heart like moral, ethical, and legal clarity. And today in the House of Representatives chamber at the United States Capitol, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, gave an historically important speech. A speech that any previous American president could have and maybe would have made, a speech to rally and save Western civilization.


We are talking about thwarting a plan that gives the world’s leading terrorist state, we’re talking about thwarting a plan being brokered by our administration that gives Iran a certain path to produce nuclear weapons. Iran, the world’s leading exporter of terrorism, the greatest threat to peace in the Middle East. And Benjamin Netanyahu came to the United States today in a desperate plea for the world to focus, to get serious, and take notice of what is happening. It was stunning.

I don’t know how many of you in the audience here had a chance to see it. We will have audio sound bites of it coming. We’re still putting those together now. But I’m gonna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it was powerful, and the Drive-By Media is underselling this. As I watched the post-speech commentary on the cable news networks, never has it been more clear that the world in which they live is not the world in which we live. To them it’s just another hum-ho speech that happened to be delivered by a foreign leader.

They’re all engaged in post-speech analysis as they would engage in the post-speech analysis of anybody who happened to give a speech about anything. They’re looking at it through the political prism of how does it help or hurt Obama? How does it help or hurt the Democrat Party, and what is Obama going to do? Will this hurt the Democrats who boycotted this speech?

They are missing the full impact and importance of what this speech was. So we will try during the program today to tell you what that was, explain to you the importance of this speech. The optics of this speech were just so overwhelmingly powerful. When I say “what could have been,” this was leadership. This was leadership in full force.

Benjamin Netanyahu today was everything Barack Obama is not. Everything. This speech today even featured Netanyahu turning to a guest in the gallery, much like presidents who deliver State of the Union speeches. Netanyahu’s guest, Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor. This speech, as I say, historically important, moral, ethical, and legal clarity. Nothing like that combination to focus the mind. And this speech was all about rallying and saving Western civilization, which is what is under assault.


Here’s some excerpts of what Netanyahu said for those of you who haven’t yet had a chance to see it. “Iran’s regime is not merely a Jewish problem anymore than the Nazi regime was merely a Jewish problem. … the greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. … Many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.”

By the way, that highlights one of the stark differences between the Obama administration’s approach to all of this and what the approach is in opposition to Obama. The Obama administration believes that they have no right to tell any nation what they can or can’t do, particularly and especially involving nuclear weapons. So what the Obama administration is relying on is, go ahead and give them a time frame where they can get the bomb, ten years, but in that time frame we will persuade them never to use them.

This highlights the hubris and arrogance of Obama, that speeches and words can tame tyrants. We’ve already seen after six years that that promise of Barack Obama back in 2008 has fallen flat. People elected Obama in 2008 with the belief that speeches and words and intelligence could tame the world’s tyrants and make them once again love the United States, which they had only recently begun to hate because of George W. Bush. Well, after six years of Obama’s speeches and persuasion and ego and arrogance, the world is on fire. It is less safe than when Obama arrived on the scene.

Speeches, words, persuasion, will never work. Ask Neville Chamberlain. Ask anybody who has asked a tyrant to stop being a tyrant. But this highlights the difference. That is the Obama approach. Even though Obama only has two more years in office, he still believes that the power of his personality and his community organizer skills or whatever, that he can persuade Iran after they get the nuke not to use it.

The Israeli approach is prevention. Do not let them get the bomb. Don’t take the risk. Don’t rely on a nation which has a 36-year track record of terrorism to all of a sudden get up one day and become nice guys. Netanyahu doesn’t believe it, doesn’t believe he wants to take the chance, doesn’t think it’s worth the chance. He said, “Many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations.”

He said, “When it comes to ISIS and Iran, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy. … DonÂ’t be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesnÂ’t turn Iran into a friend of America.”

And then it got really powerful. By the way, I should point out, he started out with overwhelming praise of Obama. He understands Obama to a T. He understands what you have to do. He understands you have to kiss ass. He understands you have to bootlick. He understands this is what Obama requires. It didn’t work, but nevertheless it makes Obama look small when he responds. Do you know what the White House response to this speech already is? A bunch of useless empty rhetoric and no action. Imagine that assessment from this administration, a bunch of useless rhetoric and no action.

This was a call to action, a call to a specific type of action that’s much different than the rhetoric we are getting from this administration, and rhetoric is all we get. He said, “This deal does not block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.” Do you realize, ladies and gentlemen, the powerful accusation contained in just that sentence? “This deal does not block Iran’s path to the bomb, it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.” This was a direct punch. If Obama watched this, the first thing that would have-ticked him off would have been the rousing presidential-like standing ovation that Netanyahu got as he entered the House chamber. And it would have only gotten worse for Obama after that.


Netanyahu very cleverly committed, by virtue of the applause he got in the chamber, virtually committed the United States Congress to his conception of defending Israel. But he said, “Israel now has the ability to defend herself, and, if necessary, Israel will go it alone.” Which is another slap, or shall I say punch. Netanyahu said, “This deal won’t be a farewell to arms. It would be a farewell to arms control.” He pointed out everybody’s praising the fact that there are inspectors, UN inspectors will go in and inspect what Iran has done. He pointed out inspectors can’t and don’t stop anything. Inspectors, at the end of the day, are meaningless. Look at the inspectors in Iraq.

If the inspectors in Iraq had actually had access, we could have learned that Saddam was using artful BS about his weapons of mass destruction. He pointed out that we’ve had inspectors go into North Korea time and time again. Inspectors who spotted X, Y, and Z. They leave. North Korea has the bomb. Netanyahu said, “If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country. … They need the deal a lot more than you do,” he said. “This is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. We’re better off without it. … The alternative to this bad deal is a much better deal.”

And on CNN today, CNN’s website and I’m sure all over the CNN network, here’s the headline of the story: “White House Warns Netanyahu Not to Reveal Iran Details — The Obama administration is bracing for Benjamin Netanyahu to spill secret details of Iran nuclear talks, as both camps traded last-minute political jabs ahead of the Israeli prime ministerÂ’s controversial address to Congress at 11am.”

A Democrat, I forget his name, I didn’t get it fully, who didn’t attend today, 50 Democrats boycotted, one of the Democrats who boycotted tweeted after the speech that this speech was an illustration of how the biggest problem facing peace in the Middle East is Benjamin Netanyahu.

You know, something interesting too, Mr. Snerdley, I don’t know if you saw this, CNN in their post-speech analysis and coverage talked to Senator DiFi, Senator Dianne Feinstein. Dana Bash was the infobabe doing the interview, and they cut to her a little bit too soon, DiFi was telling Bash what to ask her, and what she was gonna say. DiFi was going through it, “And this and this and this and this,” and then they cut to Dana Bash, “Oh, God, and here we are with Senator Dianne Feinstein.” Feinstein, I mean, this is a guess on my part, Feinstein looked like she was giving the reporter the parameters of her answer, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. I mean, they’re sisters in the cause.

But I’m telling you, folks, this was leadership, this was fearlessness. This speech today has a lot of people wishing we had this kind of forceful moral, ethical clarity leading our own country. And there will be a lot of Democrats, of course, who disagree with that profoundly. Don’t expect this to unify anything. But what this is going to do, and what it did, was expose the abject weakness in the United States position on this whole concept of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have, because this is the EIB Network, we have the first official response from the Obama White House to the Netanyahu joint session of Congress speech this morning.

(playing of spoof).

BREAK TRANSCRIPT


RUSH: Let’s go to some of the Netanyahu speech highlights. The Democrats are now strolling to their microphones to react to this, House Democrats, the ones who attended this. Well, I don’t know if it’ll be limited to those who did attend. We limited the applause to two seconds here, because it would have taken a lot of time to leave all the applause in. So just understand we’ve edited most of the applause, but it was thunderous and it was loud and it was constant for Netanyahu. Now, I mentioned Netanyahu’s smart. He knows who Obama is. He knows how you have to behave. You have to polish the apple. You have to bootlick. You have to kiss butt. So, Netanyahu obliged at the opening.

NETANYAHU: We appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel. Now, some of that is widely known. (applause) In each of those moments, I called the president, and he was there. And some of what the president has done for Israel might never be known, because it touches on some of the most sensitive and strategic issues that arise between an American president and an Israel prime minister. But I know it, and I will always be grateful to President Obama for that support. (applause)

RUSH: I got a bunch of notes, I got a bunch of flash texts and messages and e-mails from people when that happened, and they got very fatalistic. “Ah, come on! Does everybody have to come up here kiss this guy’s butt, can’t somebody just stand up there and not have to cave to this guy?” I said, “You gotta under, he’s got to do this because of what’s gonna come later in the speech. This is part of it. This is required, this respect, this according of respect for Barack Obama. He’s in Obama’s country. He’s got to do this in order put in context and give more power to what comes later in the feature.” It turned out, as usual, that I was right.

Here’s the next bite. This is Netanyahu painting a portrait of the real Iran.

NETANYAHU: Just last week, near Hormuz, Iran carried out a military exercise, blowing up a mock US aircraft carrier. That’s just last week! In the Middle East, Iran now dominates four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut, and Sana, and if Iran’s aggression is left unchecked, more will surely follow. So at a time when many hope that Iran will join the community of nations, Iran is busy gobbling up the nations. (applause).

RUSH: By the way, the whole House was applauding here. I didn’t detect too many times where the Democrats sat on their hands. There were some instances where they did, but not many. It wasn’t… Look, there was nothing in this speech to not applaud. That was the thing, folks. You know, when Obama gives a speech, there’s plenty to not applaud. When Obama gives a speech, there’s plenty to sit on your hands for. There was nothing in this speech not worthy of applause and support. It’s the way it used to be here, in talking and listening to leaders of the United States of America, to whom it was and is number one.

Here is the section of his speech containing the great line on ISIS and Iran.


NETANYAHU: And don’t be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn’t turn Iran into a friend of America. Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire, first on the region, and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire. In this deadly Game of Thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel; no peace for Christians, Jews, or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed; no rights for women, no freedom for anyone. So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy.

RUSH: None of that’s deniable. I mean, every bit of that is right on the money, but you would not hear those words uttered by anybody in this administration. These words are considered disrespectful to Iran! These words are considered to be inflammatory! Dangerous, irresponsible rhetoric, it is said to be. Yet everything in it is true. “One calls itself the Islamic State. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire, first in the region, then on the entire world.” Undeniable. They’ve said so! It’s not a matter of opinion. In he next bite, Netanyahu compares Iran to ISIS with nukes.

NETANYAHU: The difference is that ISIS is armed with butcher knives, captured weapons, and YouTube, whereas Iran could soon be armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs. We always remember — I’ll say it one more time — the greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle but lose the war. We can’t let that happen.

RUSH: But we are on the way to permitting it to happen. Undeniable, that statement is, too. We’re on the way to permitting it to happen. Have to take a break. There’s more of this, for those of you who didn’t get a chance to see it.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Another great point by Netanyahu here about the deal, the Obama deal, the American deal, that it’s so bad because Iran can get the nuclear bomb — get this. Iran can get the bomb by either breaking this deal or following it. What kind of deal is that?


NETANYAHU: Iran could get to the bomb by violating the deal. But the second major concession creates an even greater danger, that Iran could get to the bomb by keeping the deal, because virtually all the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will automatically expire in about a decade. Now, a decade may seem like a long time in the political life, but it’s the blink of an eye in the life of a nation. It’s blink of an eye in the life of our children. This deal has two major concessions. One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program. And, two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade. That’s why this deal is so bad. It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb; it paves Iran’s path to the bomb.

RUSH: This is a huge statement in this speech. I mean, this speech is a nuclear bomb, in a sense. This was a direct attack on the people who have put this deal together. The power here is profound, especially when you realize that the Regime had been warning Netanyahu not to do this in the days leading up to it. Don’t you dare discuss the inner workings and the details of the deal. Netanyahu, fearless. He did it anyway.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We’ll start in San Diego with Simon. I’m glad you waited, sir. You’re up first today. It’s great to have you here.

CALLER: Thank you, sir, for all that you do. My point is: With Iran’s goals, there’s no way that they’re not gonna make a nuclear weapon. Their view of the world is they need it to protect themselves, and they’ll use it as a way to project their power. So the idea that some kind of negotiation would make them stop, I just don’t see them accepting that. They’re just like North Korea or Red China or the Soviet Union.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: They need it and they believe they have to have a nuclear weapon.

RUSH: Right. See, this is one of Netanyahu’s points today, and one of the comments he made I think has been somewhat overlooked. I think by the time they get to the chat shows tonight, this comment that I’m gonna remind everybody of is gonna be front and center. Right now, it’s being overlooked in favor of other things. What Netanyahu said was, “Look, you can have all the inspectors in the world, and they can go in there and spot all the things in the world, they could see it, they can find the violations, but they do not stop them.”

And he said, “Israel can now defend itself, and we will go it alone.” That, folks, was one of the most — as far as Obama’s concerned — threatening elements of this speech, because Netanyahu pledged, in the name of his country, to go it alone, if he has to. Netanyahu acknowledged that there isn’t any speech, there are no words theory gonna persuade Iran to give up their quest for the nuclear bomb. Netanyahu understands the world is not governed by the aggressive use of speeches. Obama was elected to office in 2008 on the premise that he had the power with his words to tame the world’s tyrants.


Have the world’s tyrants been tamed or are they laughing at us? Obama hasn’t tamed the world’s tyrants. Obama makes excuses for them! That’s another big contrast in this speech out there today. Netanyahu was like fearless in speaking up for his own country and explaining why his own country was worth saving. He promised and had no equivocation about the value of his own country and no equivocation about how he would go to save it and defend it. Contrast that to Obama, who, when he tells us about our enemies, we have to understand them.

He tells us we need to understand them, he tells us we need to understand and we need — like Marie Harf (impression), “Well, no, you just have to understand, they’re not really militant Islamists. They just don’t have jobs, and they have bad economy and so we need a jobs program for ISIS!” So we get from our administration excuses made for our enemies. It’s worse than that. Our administration tells us how or country is responsible for our enemies! Netanyahu didn’t do that. Netanyahu didn’t tell anybody Israel is to blame for Iran for ISIS.

Netanyahu said Iran is Iran, and Iran is responsible for themselves, and so is Israel, and we’re not gonna rely on words, and we’re not gonna rely on inspectors, and we don’t have to rely on anybody but ourselves. You see, Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t seem to have any empathy for Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu did not say anything like we hear from Obama and others in his administration which is, “Well, I’m sure that Germany thinks they’re exceptional, too, and I’m sure that the Austrians think they’re exceptional.”

And, “What would we have done if somebody told us we couldn’t build a nuclear weapon back when we did it? So who are we to tell the Iranians that they can’t have one?” That’s why the Obama administration approach here is, “Go ahead and let ’em have it. Try to delay ’em getting it for ten years,” big whoop, “but then persuade them never to use it.” That is the Obama administration policy. And they think their guy can do it with the power of his personality and his aura and his words. Netanyahu says, “Sorry, we can’t rely on that. We believe in prevention and we’ll do it ourselves if we have to.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Gary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, thank you for waiting, and you’re next. What’s up?

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Thank you for taking my call.

RUSH: You bet.

CALLER: I’m an avid listener but a first-time caller. I’m calling today to get your opinion on Israel and its possible response to Iran becoming a nuclear power. I’m glad to see that the prime minister is not misguided as to what the greatest threat facing his nation is. I never heard him mention climate change even once. Do you think it’s possible that Israel will find its back to the wall to the extent that a nuclear response —

RUSH: I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. He said that, and that, to me, is one of the most committed and powerful aspects of this speech today. He said that Israel, the Jewish state can now defend itself, and it will go it alone if they have to on this. There’s no question. One other thing here. On the Netanyahu Facebook page there’s a picture of Bibi while giving the speech today with this headline: “The days when the Jewish people remain passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over.”

Netanyahu made it clear, the Obama deal is a loser. The Iranians can get a nuclear weapon either by following the deal or breaking it. Stop and think of that. That is so simple, it’s profound. The Iranians, I mean, this is a no-lose for them. They get a nuclear bomb by either following the deal or breaking the deal. James Rosen at Fox News just reported 75% of Iran’s centrifuges have been installed during Obama and Hillary and John Kerry’s watch. You need centrifuges to prepare the uranium and the polonium-210 and all the rest of the stuff.

Seventy-five percent of the centrifuges Iran needs to do this have been installed on the Obama watch, have been installed with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and John Kerry as secretary of state, 75%, three-fourths of what they need to get there has happened during this administration. I don’t think there’s any mistake what Netanyahu was saying today. They’re not gonna put up with this, and they’re not gonna be talked out of defending themselves. And if they have to go it alone they will. He came here to tell everybody, and Pelosi ends up in tears.

Hill.com: “Pelosi ‘Near Tears’ at Bibi ‘Insult.'” Pelosi said, “That is why, as one who values the US/Israel relationship, and loves Israel, I was near tears throughout the prime ministerÂ’s speech, saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States … saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran and our broader commitment to preventing nuclear proliferation.”

She’s an idiot. We are not preventing nuclear proliferation. We are sanctioning it. We are allowing Iran, in ten years, to get where they need to be to produce a bomb, and we’re relying on the power of our speeches to persuade them not to do it, not to use them.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We return now with Netanyahu proposing three demands. Now, I thought this portion of the speech, this was also profound. I mean, here, after all, truth told, Netanyahu is a foreign leader. Netanyahu’s the prime minister of Israel. He came to the United States to address a joint session of Congress, the request, invitation of the Speaker, and he took the occasion to act presidential. He took the occasion, he used it. For that I can’t fault him. He’s talking about saving his country and his people.

He alone deals with that threat. He’s alone, by the way, in that. He questions whether he has any allies in that quest to defend Israel. He really does. I don’t blame him, by the way. You shouldn’t, either. So he comes here and proposes his own deal. This is gutsy and this might be considered by some to be an in-your-face move. But keep in mind what he’s doing. He thinks that he’s alone and his nation is alone in a hostile world and doesn’t really have any allies. And if he does have allies, they’re very few, and they are outnumbered by all of his enemies.

NETANYAHU: The world should demand that Iran do three things: First, stop its aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East. Second, stop supporting terrorism around the world. And, third, stop threatening to annihilate my country, Israel, the one and only Jewish state. If the world powers are not prepared to insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal is signed, at the very least they should insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal expires. If Iran changes its behavior, the restrictions would be lifted. If Iran doesn’t change its behavior, the restrictions should not be lifted. (applause) If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country. (applause)

RUSH: You can see why Obama would be upset at this. ‘Cause the next sound bite, this is where Netanyahu characterizes the deal the United States is negotiating and tells us what he thinks of it.

NETANYAHU: Now, if Iran threatens to walk he away from the table — and this often happens in a Persian bazaar — call their bluff. They’ll be back. Because they need the deal a lot more than you do. (applause) And by maintaining the pressure on Iran and on those who do business with Iran, you have the power to make them need it even more. My friends, for over a year we’ve been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. We’re better off without it. (applause)

RUSH: What is this, by the way, who comes up with these idiotic philosophies? No deal is better than a bad deal. A bad deal is better than no deal at all. Anyway, contrast this now with Obama: We didn’t hear any viable alternatives. We just heard a bunch of empty rhetoric and no action. That’s the official White House response to this. We have a couple more bites, and then we’ll be finished with this segment and move on to other things. This is where he turned to the gallery, as presidents do during States of the Union.

NETANYAHU: With us today is Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel. (applause) Elie, your life and work inspire us to give meaning to the words “never again.” (applause) And I wish I could promise you, Elie, that the lessons of history have been learned. I can only urge the leaders of the world not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

RUSH: And now here comes the big finish. This is the citing of Moses that I referenced earlier.

NETANYAHU: Facing me, right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in this august chamber is the image of Moses. Moses led our people from slavery to the gates of the Promised Land. And before the people of Israel entered the land of Israel, Moses gave us a message that has steeled our resolve for thousands of years. I leave you with his message today. (speaking Hebrew) “Be strong and resolute. Neither fear nor dread them.” My friends, may Israel and America always stand together, strong and resolute. May we neither fear nor dread the challenges ahead. May we face the future with confidence, strength, and hope. May God bless the state of Israel, and may God bless the United States of America.

RUSH: Okay, so we’ve had all the meaningful, relevant Netanyahu sound bites and we’ve highlighted Obama’s reaction to it, which is angry and petulant and feeling put upon, all of which is understandable. We’ve had Netanyahu acting like the leader of the free world. Netanyahu is a perfect example of a foreigner coming here to do the jobs Americans won’t do. How about that? Benjamin Netanyahu, a perfect example of a foreigner coming here to do the jobs Americans won’t do. In this case, behaving like a president, which is exactly what he did.

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