Giving Iran nuclear reactors when they promise to wipe Israel off the map and then destroy America is insane. Just absolutely insane – and deadly.

The Obama administration toed a hard line Monday against Benjamin Netanyahu for his comments about Israeli Arab … statehood leading up to Israel’s election last week, but downplayed concerns over “death to America” remarks Iran’s supreme leader made over the weekend.

The White House also seemed to warmly welcome input from 367 House members reiterating Congress‘ role in reaching a final nuclear agreement with Tehran, despite its vigorous attacks on an earlier letter to the Iranian leadership from 47 GOP senators explaining that any deal Iran may strike with the U.S. needs to be submitted to Congress to be binding.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said … that Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s remarks merely “underscore why it is so critically important” that the U.S. and other world powers “succeed in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

While he suggested anti-American language from Iran is something Washington can wait to deal with after the achievement of a potential nuclear agreement with Tehran, Mr. Earnest said Mr. Netanyahu needed to move quickly toward assuring Israeli Arabs that no harm was meant by his election-eve pronouncements against them.

Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear his disgust with the parameters of the administration’s ongoing talks with Tehran on its nuclear program, and this has led to several testy exchanges, a controversial speech by the Israeli leader to Congress and Democratic political operatives traveling to Israel to work against Mr. Netanyahu in his re-election campaign.

In a letter to President Obama signed by House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Edward R. Royce, ranking Democrat Rep. Eliot L. Engel and 365 others, the lawmakers stressed that Congress will review any agreement with Iran to determine whether it adequately curtails the country’s nuclear program before agreeing to lift economic sanctions.

The letter comes at a crucial moment in negotiations with Iran, with the deadline for a preliminary deal to slow Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for sanctions relief looming on March 31.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/mar/23/obama-downplays-iran-death-to-america-remarks-toes/