Obama's Latest Iran Gambit: Kudos!

I have been somewhat critical of our current President on my blog over the last few months - especially as pertains to his dealings with Israel. I have to say, it's beginning to appear I may have underestimated his shrewdness when it comes to foreign policy. Case in point: he dropped this metaphorical bomb on the Iranians Friday together with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French Pres. Nicholas Sarkozy ('U.S. and Allies Warn Iran Over Nuclear ‘Deception’ - NY Times).

By first getting the Iranians to agree to meet and then only 5 days before the scheduled meeting, confronting them with nearly incontrovertible proof that they have a secret nuclear program hidden inside a mountain just outside of the Mullah's headquarters in Qom, he has backed them into a corner. They back out now and it becomes obvious they are hiding something. They show up to the meeting and they will be forced to answer for their secretive building project and subsequent deception in front of the globe's major superpowers (there's no question the plant is for a weapons program - it's too small for enriching fuel for energy needs unlike the previously declared and inspected plant at Natanz and Iran's failure to declare the plant and its location on a Revolutionary Guard base as well as its location just outside Qom pretty much seal the case.)

In a possible swipe at President Bush, Pres. Obama says he waited to come forth with the revelations to ensure the intelligence data the U.S. had was accurate - unlike Bush with Iraq's supposed WMDs. But the timing can not have been accidental. Waiting till less than a week before the meeting with Iran is too perfect to be merely coincidence. As Obama put it Friday,

“Iran is on notice that when we meet with them on Oct. 1 they are going to have to come clean and they will have to make a choice... The alternative to giving up their program is to continue down a path that is going to lead to confrontation.”

So Kudos to Obama for his latest Iran gambit. He'll certainly have an easier time convincing major global powers to impose 'crippling' sanctions than his predecessor, especially after meeting Iran face to face. No one will be able to say he didn't try. And now he's got a picture of Tehran with the 'smoking gun', so to speak.

Which brings me to another less important point but something I've been meaning to write about nonetheless: What's up with the insane anti-Obama attitude among Orthodox Jews?! In shul in Monsey on Rosh Hashana, the Rabbi suffixed Obama's name with a 'Yimach Shemo' - 'may his name be obliterated' - a phrase generally reserved for the likes of Hitler, Arafat, and Torquemada. Pretty much people who have spent their entire lives oppressing and murdering Jews by the thousands. Unfortunately, most Orthodox Jews are too illiterate, gullible and closed-minded to actually give Obama a fair hearing - I can name many similar instances since Obama took office, though few were this offensive (I was at a party in June, also in Monsey, where someone suggested a plate of extra watermelons be sent to Obama, to some snickers - that may have actually been worse. Come to think of it, maybe Monsey is the real problem ;-) ). Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all Orthodox Jews disdain Obama and of those that do many are not racist but I am still perturbed by all this, especially when the evidence is beginning to mount that the man may actually have some of our best interests in mind.

Bottom line: If he stands Iran down on the A-bomb - still a big if- he will be an automatic hero of mine and I will consider him Israel's greatest friend to ever serve in the White House. And right now, he's got a hell of a better chance of pulling it off than Bush, who carried a big stick, and allowed Iran to get 8 years closer to developing nukes.

Yalah Shachar! Andele Andy!

So only a crazy person would do this. I got off the nearly 12 hour flight from Israel to NYC, on which I barely slept b/c I was taking care of my two kids, both of who refused to sleep. My mom met us at the airport and dropped me by my brother Mo at the Subway on Jewel Ave. in Queens (right near his place near Queens College) where we got footlongs to go (kosher subway! I love NY) - mine was some sort of Italian style pastrami and turkey - delish! Then it was off to Flushing Meadows, home of the world's largest field of toilets and more importantly, round two of the U.S. Open.

We had nightcap tickets but that still gave us a groundspass which proved to be the best part of the whole thing. We got in and looked at the big scoreboard on Ashe Stadium to see what was going on. Shachar Pe'er, Israel's lone female hope was warming up on court 11 so we headed in there and were treated to a thrashing of Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro. Sachar was in top form, barely making an error and dropping only 2 games in 2 sets. I still think her serve needs to improve big time if she wants to really go far in a major but it was great to see her play so well following her injury.

The Israeli fans at her matches are insane. Constant screaming and catcalling, flag waiving, they bring their whole extended families out, pick up their cell phoes in the middle of a point. But they really get Shachar's back and I think it gives her lots of energy to play her best. My brother Yaakov, who hits a lot of U.S. Open tennis thinks Shachar has a better fan base there than most American players, with notable exceptions like Roddick and the Williams sisters.

Mid-match, I hopped out to go to the bathroom and found myself next to a guy who towered over me. I'm not a short guy - 6'1" or so - and I've never felt like such a midget in my life. This guy may have been 7 feet, or just under if not.

Next we wandered the grounds and caught some good doubles (#3 team Knowles and Bhupathi) and caught the last set and a half of Phillipe Kohlshrieber against an Indian qualifier Samdiev Devvarman. Kohlshreiber won fairly easily in terms of the line score but Samdiev put up a huge fight on every point, dragging points to as many as 40 groundstrokes. He was very scrappy.

Then it was into Arthur Ashe Stadium for the end of Shrapova and the Andy Roddick match. Ashe is insane. I haven't been to the Open since the days of Sampras and Aggassi and so have never sat in the monstrosity that is Ashe. It holds nearly 25,000 people and from our vantage point in the uper deck, we could see the action well but didn't feel like we were at a tennis match but rather a Yankees game. The crowd gets pretty into the matches so that's cool. Roddick is in top form and I think he's gona go deep this year. I kind of hope he even wins - he derserves it and is playing so well he just may pull it off. The guys behind us kept catcalling 'Brooklyn' - Roddick's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition model turned wife, Brooklyn Deckert. Funny stuff.

My Dad is funny to watch there. He's not a big fan of waiting on lines, which you have to do a fair bit with the grounds pass, so if you see a middle-aged man running across the grounds to beat the rush into a no-name first round mixed doubes match, it may be him ;-) Good times - a great way to arrive in NYC. Thanks guys!