“We’re not bluffing,” President Barack Obama declared to Prime Minister Netanyahu during his recent visit to Jerusalem on March 20. “We’re not bluffing,” has become the American refrain during every dialogue with Israelis, no matter what the level. Trust us. It’s true. I went into greater detail about this in an earlier article I published in Al-Monitor, which covered the main points of American-Israeli discussion about this during the president’s visit to Jerusalem.

Those experienced old foxes from Israel’s defense establishment and diplomatic service, who keep close tabs on events, drew my attention to one interesting fact. It certainly is possible that Obama was telling the truth, when he assured Netanyahu that he’s “not bluffing,” even if he actually was bluffing, to himself and to us. It all has to do with the precise definition of how each of the parties defines their respective objectives when dealing with Iran.

As far as Israel is concerned, the objective is preventing Iran from attaining nuclear weapons “capability,” whereas Obama’s objective is preventing “nuclear weapons” per se. It is a case of nuclear weapons production capability versus nuclear weapons. Full stop. What Israel really wants to ensure is that Iran isn’t capable of producing weapons of that sort, even if it is not actually producing them at present. 

And Obama? All that he cares about is that Iran doesn’t actually possess nuclear weapons (i.e., missiles armed with nuclear warheads) during his watch.