Opinion
Obama was right, Iran capitulated
Efraim Halevy
Published: 06.04.15, 15:04
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29 Talkbacks for this article
1. I am shaking thinking this guy once was head of Mossad!
(04.06.15)
2. remember the jordan spy fiasco
mark   (04.06.15)
halevy with his british accent and mossad pedigree tries like diskin to portray himeself as some expert. Diskin was in with olmert who dagan calls courageous while winograd said he was no good in its interim report. Halevy hatched the jordan spy caper which ended up as a disaster ;israel had to release yassin to get its operatives back. Halevy is a disaster period and sh ould not be listened to. diskin and dagan can go visit olmert in jail where he will be 2 years from now in my opinion. it would be interesting to know if dagan received any funding from left wing organisations either in the US or israel to say the things he did in support of buji and zippora.
3. The proof is in the plutonium...
Ben ,   Clevleland, OH   (04.06.15)
Iran has historically, and across multiple regime leaders, failed to live up to any diplomacy struck with the United States. It is worth stating how much effort has gone into a diplomatic solution with a nation whose leaders continually disregard the agreements that have been met with them. Iran being a sun drenched, relatively flat country, could be the poster child for powering a nation using solar. Pursuit of nuclear power is expensive andneedlessly complicated in the face of such facts. The known Iranian facilities were developed to make weapons, and more than likely the least updated ones. Centrifuging, while the organic solution to making nuclear weapons, is not the only place to acquire weapons-grade fissionable material. The entire deal should be considered lip service to get the United States off the back of the regime. It is an unfortunate truth that this negotiation cannot be considered more than a handshake with a knife behind Iran's back and certainly not the end of this situation.
4. there is only 1 thing to be sure of...
jack bauer   (04.06.15)
if obama says it is good for israel, it is not. he is a proven liar and this is simply another ploy to create the situation for WWIII that is coming soon.
5. A dictatorship never capitulates by a compromise
Alan ,   Canada   (04.06.15)
The theocrats who rule Iran are temporarily compelled to a 10 year like Hudna (like Mohamed to reinforce & later win in the fighting for power). The economic sanctions have delayed reaching their ultimate objectives but did not eliminate them as one can see every day in Yemen & elsewhere. The only time dictators capitulate for sure is without conditions & then they loose power to commit evil.
6. Obama was right, Iran capitulated
Kisufim ,   TLV, Israel   (04.06.15)
What naïve and wrong analysis. Surprising coming from the person who gave so much for the Israel security, now blinded by ideological hater and blindness. No Mr. Halevy, you are deadly wrong.
7. Old centrifuges still produce well
Shep ,   Memphis, TN - USA   (04.06.15)
Israel had no problem with the old centrifuges. They aren't harmless.
8. But taqiyya is Quran-supported lying to infidels.
David ,   Hartford USA   (04.06.15)
Iran leadership are consummate liars. They have dragged on these negotiations for as long as they can. They will finally sign something- but it won't mean a thing to them. Inspectors won't have carte blanche to look wherever they want. They will be chaperoned like sheep to see only what Iran wants them to see. Negotiating while Iran is the worlds biggest supporter of Islamic psychopaths? While Iranian clerics and generals threaten Israel with eradication? This deal is worthless. Unfortunately, it will be Israel that feels Iran's hatred, not the USA.
9. Lov the comments. They confirm the sterotype
American Vet   (04.06.15)
"we are the chosen" "we want the world"
10. Stalling is in Iran's Interest
Ed ,   USA   (04.06.15)
Stalling is in Iran's interest. They are close to a bomb. Without an active reversal of their program, they will have the bomb soon. They don't need to actually have a bomb to exercise power in the region. As long as their neighbors believe they could have one very soon, they can build the regional hegemony they seek. Kissinger's comment about the Iran/Iraq war comes to mind: the biggest tragedy is that there can't be 2 losers. The US has come in on Iran's side, wrongly supposing that Iran is better than ISIS.
11. Agree with # 1
rich ,   raanana & New York   (04.06.15)
Unbelievable... This author is either drunk with power or is just drunk. He's probably drinking from the same kool-aid that kerry & obama have been chugging from. Any sane person with average intelligence can see that iran was the marianette and Obama was one big puppet during these talks which are leading to a full scale war - either conventional or nuclear - OR BOTH !!!
12. How embarassing it is to....
Gideon Reader ,   USA   (04.06.15)
...view the open and shameless butt kissing, so obviously bought and paid for with ZerObama's largesse of the US taxpayer's money.
13. Haley is taking US reading, not Iran
Raymond in DC ,   Washington, USA   (04.06.15)
Unfortunately, the framework, which Iran didn't even sign, is an extreme example of what Kissinger used to call "creative ambiguity", allowing each party to interpret the terms of any agreement in their own way. And Iran has already termed the US interpretation, which Halevi swallows whole, as "spin". So in fact there is not yet *any* agreement on what's to be done of who will control the "surplus" centrifuges, the nature of the inspection regime or the research that will be carried out at Fordo, the modifixations to be carried out at Arak, the pace of sanctions removal, etc. All those terms need to be worked out in the next three months, but there are two certainties: First, Iran will never agree to a final agreement that conforms to the US optimistic aspirations, so it's a matter of how many more concessions the P5+1 will make when confronting Iranian refusals. The second is that there will be no final deal by June 30, but the US will insist there has been enough "progress" to extend the talks.
14. Iran and nukes
Don Russell ,   Independence, MO   (04.06.15)
Iran has more oil than they could ever use for energy and more sun than most countries for solar energy! They could only desire nuclear for purposes of a bomb. And the Obama admin. is so desirous of spending money for solar, why don't they convince Iran of the tremendous advantages....
15. Iran has a completlely different interpretation
Jake   (04.06.15)
about the timetime of sanctions and other key aspects of the "deal". Even Hizbullah is claiming that the deal is a "victory"...so I wonder what this is author smoking.
16. @David Hartford USA
Michael Redboun ,   Aveiro, Porugal   (04.06.15)
Israel is only the little Satan. The US is the real Satan.
17. Deal with Iran
Mark Wadler ,   Lawrence NY   (04.06.15)
You must be Joking !!! US President Barack Obama was right in labeling the document a "historic" one – and for the following reasons: 1. For decades, Iran rejected the international community's demand to hold talks of any kind with respect to its nuclear program. The interim agreement reached in Lausanne proves that Tehran capitulated, by agreeing to conduct negotiations about its plans and the nuclear infrastructure it has built up for years, primarily in secret. .....Iran only capitulated and negotiated because of Sanctions and once they are lifted Iran is free to do what she wants .......PM Netanyahu said that “ Inspectors can only report Violations, they can't prevent Violations ", and in the best of situations Iran can still decide what the inspectors Can inspect and what they can't. Iran has already said that Inspectors can't inspect Military Installations, those are the places that they're experimenting with Nuclear weapons. .......... Obama didn't prevent Iran from a path of getting a Bomb, he paved a path for Iran to get a Bomb, with the Worlds Approval.
18. open eyes are better than PC shut eyes
Galut ,   Selah   (04.06.15)
Any country that has had a past history of deception should be held at arms length with serious skepticism ...to do anything less is inviting disaster ....
19. Iranians are dancing in the streets & their leaders declare:
C   (04.06.15)
"the destruction of israel is non negotiable." obama refuses to demand that the shia terror regime renounce its declared goal to destroy the jewish state. the flim flam deal which is not signed by the parties and of which both parties have different versions, does not stop iran's nuclear weapons program as obama himself admits. breakout time will go from two months to a year at most, if one is to believe the obama version. in the meantime, sanctions on iran will be lifted and iran will have the wealth to build up a formidable conventional force with which to continue its imperial and colonial conquests in the entire middle east. hezbollah, iran's terror proxy, and its al quds forces are already in forward positions all along israel's northern borther. unlike halevy, israel's entire security cabinet and its top military commanders, reject obama's flim flam deal as posing an unacceptable threat to israel.
20. Agreement = bomb?
Jay Lefkowitz ,   Brooklyn, USA   (04.06.15)
This pundit Halevy fails to address the core issue. Will this agreement allow Iran to obtain the bomb? The answer seems to be that it will (even if only down the road in a few years), All of his other points are merely trivial.
21. O sez US has "Israels back"-from the guy who closed down B G
Alan ,   SA   (04.06.15)
Airport and embargoed those Hellfire Missiles
22. Iran and Israel
Al ,   Luxembourg   (04.06.15)
Sorry but the journalists and authors have a responsibility when they address the public in this matter, they should try to create a bridge between the people of Iran and Israel instead of writing ill-concieved,ridiculous articles like this. I will repeat it as much as possible, but Iran is living under a terrible regime but it has the only non-anti-Semitic people in the region. They can be the biggest allies of Israel as they were in the past. Please try to write sensibly on Iran and do not scare the Israeli public. The despicable Iranian monkey leadership do enough on that front.
23. We must not let such leftist dolts run the Mossad!
Chaim ,   Israel   (04.06.15)
It is incredibly scary that leftist dolts, like Halevi, run the Mossad. It took us 2,000 years to rebirth Israel. We must not let our security rest in the hands of infallibly wrong leftists; who put Israel in mortal danger to praise the most hostile U.S. president Israel has ever faced.
24. Embarassing?
yosef, phd ,   florida-israel   (04.06.15)
Nothing is too embarassing - by definition - to a pathological liar Obama's caliber ! This lunatic has created his own reality - much like 1001 nights, believes it, lives in it - NOT anymore in the White House. And this IS a national calamity for the U.S. - indeed the Western value systems...
25. Obama was right??
BPritchett   (04.07.15)
If there is no such thing as a good agreement, and if by the authors own admission "Iran has a history of lies and cunning, and can be expected to breach the agreement and deceive the world"--why exactly are we even talking about entering into an agreement with someone who cannot keep an agreement?
26. There's absolutely NO WAY that both Halevy &Myself are sane!
(04.07.15)
I put money on myself being the not so crazy one....
27. Iran is Iran
Sherlock Holmes ,   London England   (04.07.15)
Neither the West nor the Arab world trusts Iran or anthing Iran agrees to. Once sanctions are lifted Iran will be even better able to bankroll terror across the Middle East. Kerry has done his best and the other five 'powers' seem to accept the outcome, flawed though it is.
28. what about N. Korea deal????
Avram Goldsmith ,   Canada   (04.07.15)
Same premessis and in end they got the atomic bomb, one mistake in this business is fatal, and American way to tinking as: compromissing everythink in order to make the deal or the means excusses the end'" has catastrophic consequences. Second thoughts: what the hack Mr. Ephraim can retire quitely and live his ego to depart from his pesonality!!! Remind me Time of Maarach = mediocrism and mental impotency to see all the picture.
29. Nuclear agreement with Iran
A Shamir ,   Plymouth, MA, USA   (04.30.15)
Perhaps Bibi's stance vs President Obama's can be read as bad-cop/good-cop , and might be quite honest as opposed to a ploy. Regardless, it generates pressure upon Iran, that is yielding results. For now the agreement is still in principles form, and the pressure must be kept to ensure the details won't be nebulous. With the demand that Iran recognize Israel's right to exist, perhaps Bibi is signalling a potential compromise.
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