A.B. Yehoshua makes some great points and offers a more constructive discussion

I believe it's the other way around author, aipac is buying elections for congressmen, senators and reps with billions of u.s. Taxpayer's money. It's a prepetuel cycle, the congressmen then create bills that send more money to Israel. We are israels in control of us.

Very nice article and logical. I'm not well versed in Middle East history but if everyone knew what you just wrote, a sort of summary of positive events, perceptions can change. It seems that people like to focus on the negative but this article is opposite, a nice positive approach to a negative situation. Good positive reporting and I would hope some of our politicians or advisers read your article.

"And why do we have to talk to the Americans as if we really are an extension of the US?" Agree.

Thats the HUGE irony! Extensive recent INTERNAL surveys of the MAJORITY average Iranian sentiment shows that of course Iranians are proud to be Iranian and are proud Muslims BUT ABHOR Ahmedinajds fanatical extremist and racist rhetoric and ideology Not one person surveyed disputed the Holocaust, not one condoned the destruction of Israel and many wanted to sever all ties with Hezbollah! Whats more almost ALL would prefer to see normal relations with Israel restored rather than childish and dangerous brinkmanship So how do you square Ahmadinejads rhetoric with what many Iranians and indeed Israelis are thinking and feeling right now? Thats Ahmadinejad and his squalid Regime all over Out of TOUCH, Out of SIGHT, Out of MIND....and Out of TIME

Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians have repeatedly stated that they have no conflict at all with the Israeli people. Had he mentioned Cyrus decree to et the Jews (allowing them to rebuild the temple), the Iranian regime had claimed that this is proof Netanyahu secretey plans to rebuild the temple on the ruins of Al-aqsah - potentially prompting another "Save Al-aqsah" intifada. Good authors are dangerous political speech writers

Me fail English? That's unpossible!

was shown in full unedited on Iranian telly? Nice try but Netanyahu's cartoon was and is seen as a joke. Wyle E Coyote expressing the risk of Iran achieving anuclear parity with Israel through the medium of dance was sadly lacking, and was the gravitas required to take Netanyahu's speech seriously. The fact is Netanyahu made a huge error in using the cartoon, and no amount of spin is going to undo that

It's the economy, stupid, and if there is anyone laughing, the joke is on Ahmadinejad and the Iranian regime. The Iraian Rial has bottomed out, and their economy has collapsed. B'H, the Israel ecnomy has ridden out the global recession. Netanyahu's popularity is at an all-time high, and rising. So sorry.

Give me a break. Does the left NEVER learn?

B.B. should have taken this great opportunity to point out that approximately 100,000 Jews fled fearing for their lives from Islamic lands in the Middle East because of Islamic pogroms & huge intolerance of Jews, Christians, Copts etc. He should have told them about Esther & Haman too!

.... or cajoling, or trying to appeal to the Iranian people. Prime Minister Netanyahu got this one absolutely right. Remember how well Obama's pitiful televised appeal to the Iranian people back in 2009 was received? With much laughter and derision. Prime Minister Netanyahu is made of sterner stuff than Obama. The only message that needed to be delivered, got delivered: Israel has set a red line. Cross it at your peril. That's all that the Iranian people need to know; that's all that the Iranian government needs to know. It was a casual dismissal of the Islamic Republic made simple and effective enough so that even the most intellectually challenged Iranian could understand. By the way -- you can all be sure of one thing: any United Nations speech televised in Iran would have undergone significant editing and would be dubbed in Farsi. It is highly unlikely that the translation would be remotely accurate. The Iranian people hear only what the assortment of ayatollahs and mullahs want them to hear. The only nation in the world that is more cut off from the world than Iran is North Korea. For many of the same despicable reasons.

Nonsensical ranting of the writer ascribing Peace treaties with Egypt&Jordan to Israeli prop,not to the strength of the IDF

Closer to one million, actually, dear.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly Netanyahu quoted scholar Bernard Lewis which is more relevant than anything else Netanyahu could have said. "He said that for the Ayatollahs of Iran, mutually assured destruction is not a deterrent, it’s an inducement" . Unfortunately, A.B. Yehoshua never read Bernard Lewis else he would have understood the significance of Netanyahu's quote Why are Bernard Lewis's views on MAD ignored? http://madisdead.blogspot.co.il/2012/05/why-are-bernard-lewiss-views-on-mad.html