Benjamin Netanyahu surely sees himself as a kind of Winston Churchill warning against the appeasement strategy of a Neville Chamberlain-like Barack Obama. Obama, like Chamberlain, has made serial concessions in an attempt to appease a tyrannical regime, as Chamberlain did in Munich in 1938, and with at least one similar motivation, to avoid the horrors of war; although Chamberlain had fewer illusions about changing the character of Hitler’s regime than Obama seems to have about changing Iran’s.

Whether you agree with Netanyahu’s view or not, there was at least one clear echo of Churchill in Netanyahu’s speech to Congress Tuesday. In addressing the argument that the current leaders of Iran’s government (who are subject of course to the edicts of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameini) are moderates, Netanyahu said, “Now, two years ago, we were told to give President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif a chance to bring change and moderation to Iran.” A pause. “Some change!” Another pause. “Some moderation!”