Skin in the game

"The way we have treated Israel in these sham negotiations is beyond shame. This was so typical Obama and Kerry..."

One of the things I learned in the world of business was a very simple axiom. The best deals are crafted by those who have skin in the game. You need to be invested. You need to enjoy the benefits of a deal done right and suffer the consequences of a deal gone bad. Seems simple to most of us, right? How does this relate to the current Iran nuke deal? If doesn't.

A person who was trying to infuse logic into these negotiations might first ask a basic question. Who has the most skin in the game? Well, if we take the Iranians at their word, it would be Israel and the United States. Next up would be nation states in the neighborhood who are predominantly Sunni. Nations like Saudi Arabia. Nations like Jordan. Nations like Egypt. Whereas Iran is most Shia, many of its neighboring countries are Sunni.

Even though the feuding between Shia and Sunni is ancient, the object of Iran's most visceral wrath is Israel. Many times, almost too many to count, the government of Iran has not only discredited Israel, but also questioned their very right to exist. In fact, many times Iran has offered to be the instrument of Israel's destruction. And yet, Israel was not at the negotiation table. They have no right of acceptance nor refusal of the terms. They are being treated as an uninterested observer by the United States and the United Nations. Why? 

The irony of these negotiations is that the United States also has skin in the game. We are threatened almost daily by the Iranian government. Crowds in the street of Tehran chant "Death to America!" During the negotiations they mocked up a ship to look like the USS Nimitz. And then they tried to sink it. Our President, who is now trying to sell this POS agreement to the people who would ratify it has said, "it is this agreement or we will have some kind of war". What a false choice by a false man!

Here is how this could play out should enough mind numbed robots in the House and Senate vote to support and pass this flawed agreement. Israel, Egypt, Saudi and possibly others will form an alliance. Since this agreement gives the Iranians the "green light" to produce nukes, and since Iran has proven many times to be untrustworthy, war will be the only option. All hell will break loose in the Middle East as this new alliance will attack Iran's nuke facilities with everything they have. Iran will then retaliate. The Middle East will then become a cauldron boiling over. The false choice our President gave us will then come to fruition.

One final thing to consider. The worst kept secret in the Middle East is that Israel has nukes. They have had them for years, and they are in Israel for only one reason. If it ever looked like Israel was going to suffer total defeat leading to total its annihilation, Israel would launch.

If Mr. Kerry was not cognizant of that fact, he should have been. He also should have known that one simple question: Who does, and who does not, have skin in this most important game.