Who said "Iran's development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable and we have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening"? It wasn't Binyamin Netanyahu. No, President Barack Obama said that at his first press conference after winning the 2008 election.

The clock is ticking ominously on that front. "We feel a sense of urgency," an Israeli spokesman said as Prime Minister Netanyahu prepared for his first meeting with Obama since both were elected. All Israelis feel that sense of urgency because they have watched, frustrated, as the Bush administration signed on to a lengthy series of negotiations with Iran headed by the Europeans. With U.S. approval, the Europeans offered a smorgasbord of incentives for Iran to give up its nuclear program. They were met with meetings and more meetings. Iran agreed to nothing except more meetings in an attempt to run out the clock. Tick. Tick. Tick.

And now a new American administration arrives on the scene convinced, like its predecessor, that negotiations are the way to go -- except, oddly, President Obama believes that he is departing from past practice. Speaking to Newsweek magazine, he said, "...We want to offer Iran an opportunity to align itself with international norms and international rules. I think, ultimately, that will be better for the Iranian people. I think that there is the ability of an Islamic Republic of Iran to maintain its Islamic character while, at the same time, being a member in good standing of the international community and not a threat to its neighbors. And we are going to reach out to them and try to shift off of a pattern over the last 30 years that hasn't produced results in the region."

"Shift off a pattern over the last 30 years"? But the world has negotiated with Iran -- offering carrots and sticks -- continuously over that period. Will the Obama magic somehow accomplish what the Europeans, the United Nations, and five previous presidents of both parties could not? Continued...