Netanyahu's empty gun
Op-ed: PM's missed opportunities, clumsy moves have helped turn Iran into nuclear threshold country
The event demonstrating the situation of Israel's
relations with the United States took place on Friday, in a side hall at Ben-Gurion Airport. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
walked out so angry from the hasty meeting he held there with US Secretary of State John Kerry, so upset and flustered, that even the photo op planned for the two officials was canceled, for fear that the crisis between the countries would be exposed for everyone to see.
But at the end of the meeting, Kerry took off to Geneva to participate in the talks
on suspending the Iranian nuclear program, and Netanyahu was left with his statements of condemnation
about "a bad and dangerous deal." And with such results, there is no wonder that even the New York Times declared that "Netanyahu can only fume."
US Policy
Shoula Romano Horing
Op-ed: It is morally disgraceful for US president to pressure Jews to turn their back on Israeli concerns
Considering the outcome, as Ehud Barak likes to measure strategic situations, Israel lost the holding-defense battle against the Iranian nuclear program. The agreement taking shape between the powers and Iran, assuming it survives the difficulties on the way, is expected to turn the Islamic Republic into a nuclear threshold country. In other words, it will be able to continue enriching uranium to a level of 3.5% and maintain the huge infrastructure it has built for close to 20 years – and the distance between Iran and the bomb will be just several month. All this with international approval and authority.
Double failure
This is a double failure. Netanyahu, as prime minister, invested more than NIS 10 billion (about $3 billion) in building infrastructure for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Some said the goal was to convey to the Americans to "try to stop us," and make them take action themselves. In any event, nothing came out of it. Washington was undeterred by the Israeli prime minister's threats and led an approach advancing a diplomatic solution.If at the end of the day the world powers and Iran reach understandings, Netanyahu's declarations that Israel will not be obliged by the agreement will be meaningless. The option of an attack, it seems, no longer exists. Let's just see the Israeli prime minister dare send US-made Israel Air Force jets on his own to bomb the nuclear facilities in Bushehr and Fordo against an agreement signed by the Americans.
Those hoping to be rescued by Israel's friends at the Congress should not get their hopes up. History shows that on matters related to foreign policy, the Congress tends to eventually go with the president – both Democrats and Republicans. That's what happened with Israel's battle in the mid 1980s against the sale of AWACS surveillance plans to Saudi Arabia, and the same happened when Israel tried to sell surveillance plans to China.
The bottom line is that Iran is soon expected to join India, Pakistan and Israel – according to foreign reports – in the club of countries in possession of nuclear bombs or just a stone's throw away from them. And what's the reason for that? Failures, missed opportunities and a series of clumsy moves on Netanyahu's part.
