In endorsing Donald Trump in the pages of the Washington Post, Sheldon Adelson is up front about the fact that his opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran is of “paramount importance” to him. And that’s interesting because one of the most slam-dunk reasons not to elect Donald Trump is that it would give him control of the biggest nuclear weapons arsenal on the planet.
Now, I understand and sympathize with Adelson’s concern that Israel could be threatened or blackmailed by a nuclear Iran, and I get that a lot of Israelis are uncomfortable with Iran’s radical government enjoying any kind of legitimacy whatsoever. But it’s a problem for everyone, not just Israelis, if nuclear weapons are used, regardless of the reason. And it’s just eleventy-billion times more dangerous to give America’s nuclear codes to an ignoramus and certifiable narcissist than it is to cut a deal with Iran that is intended to cut off their nuclear ambitions and to establish a rigorous monitoring regime to catch them if they renege.
Adelson, of course, is not an Israeli. He’s an American who seems to care about American politics in part because he has huge business interests to protect, but mainly because he cares about how our policies impact Israel.
That is his right and I don’t have a problem with it except for the fact that his opinion shouldn’t count for so much more than mine.
What bothers me the most though is the selfishness of only caring about how nuclear weapons might threaten one country (which isn’t even our own) rather than worrying, first and foremost, about the bigger picture.
Donald Trump with a nuclear briefcase is just an immeasurably bigger threat to humanity than anything Iran could do to anyone, ever.
