“President Trump is not going to do another ‘JCPOA’ with Iran. He’s simply not going to do a bad deal with the mullahs who have been trying to assassinate him for the past five years. It isn’t happening. Relax.”
This is the refrain that people confident about the realism of President Donald Trump’s national security policy keep repeating to friends of Israel, fearful that the president is in a rush to agree to any deal put on the table by Tehran.
Supporters of the Jewish State fear the influence of the so-called “restrainers” around the Oval Office. And they know a nuke in the control of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is one soon to be on a truck, plane, or freighter headed toward the border of Israel.
Fanatics do fanatical things. Friends of Israel are right to sweat out the details of any negotiation when those talks concern Iran’s nuclear program. Imagine if the Oct. 7 horde that invaded from Gaza had possessed even “dirty bombs?” The south of Israel would be off limits for years, if not decades.
A nuclear program run by Iran is very much an existential threat to Israel. So, friends of Israel in the United States are going to worry about every U.S.-Iran “negotiation” no matter who is running it.
They should not worry about this one, however, because this is the president who ordered Qasem Soleimani killed via a drone strike as the charismatic Iranian general and chief strategist of the Iranian regime touched down in Baghdad in January 2020, when Iran-backed militias were attacking American forces. This is the president who hasn’t blinked or refused public appearances even as the FBI routinely briefed him and others in his administration of plots by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to assassinate him after the killing of Soleimani. Trump didn’t stop doing rallies after the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, or after the second assassin’s attempt in the fall. Trump is not for “duck and cover,” and he’s not a mark like so many previous American presidents have proven to be when it comes to Iran’s regime.
Trump is also very close with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his staff has longtime supporters of Israel on it, and his Cabinet numbers many of Israel’s most vocal defenders inside the Beltway, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump has put Iran in a box: Either it dismantles the nuclear program and turns over the enriched uranium in crates next to the smashed centrifuges, or the sites where that uranium and those centrifuges are housed right now get bombed.
Speak softly and often about peace with Iran. And station a half dozen B-2 stealth bombers and two carrier groups within range of every target set necessary in Iran.
Some Iran hawks who understand that the regime is incapable of genuine reform for fear of its population rising in a counter-revolution to the one in 1978 and 1979, a revolution that thrust a proud and vigorous Persian nation down a dark, extremist Islamist path. The periodic attempts by the people to rise against the extremists who rule and have destroyed the country’s economy while enriching themselves have been ruthlessly suppressed again and again. The Iranian diaspora despairs of ever seeing the world rally to the cause of the Iranian people.
The “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” negotiated by former Secretary of State John Kerry on behalf of former President Barack Obama was a low point in the history of post-Islamic revolution Iran. It signaled the acceptance by Democrats in America of the legitimacy of that repressive theocracy in Iran, despite that government’s repeated vows to destroy both the “little Satan” and the “big Satan” — Israel and the U.S., respectively. Obama and Kerry entered the Appeasement Hall of Fame with the JCPOA. The supporters of American and Israeli national security were shocked then and remain shocked now by how awful and one-sided that “deal” was.
‘IF THEY DON’T MAKE A DEAL, THERE WILL BE BOMBING’
So, they are scarred and scared that it will happen again. It might have, had former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024. But she didn’t. And Trump is not about to mortgage his legacy over another JCPOA. He’s given Iran a very clear choice: Dismantle the program and let the world verify that it’s been dismantled. Or there will be bombing.
Clarity is a good thing. Trump has been very, very clear. The people who fear he will cave to the mullahs have not been paying attention. Trump can and does make mistakes, but not with regimes bent on killing him and destroying the U.S.
Hugh Hewitt is a longtime conservative commentator and author. He hosts the Hugh Hewitt Show on Salem Radio every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m.