This week, a former senior official in Israel’s security establishment described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s priorities to me: “Iran, Iran, Iran and only after that Syria and Egypt, and finally, the Palestinians.” He brought his palm down almost to the floor to stress to me how low the Palestinian issue really was on Netanyahu’s list of priorities.
Netanyahu’s obsession with the Iranian issue doesn’t need any visual aids. Israelis have been hearing “Iran, Iran, Iran” for years. They have also been hearing from foreign publications that retired senior members of the security establishment (former Mossad head Meir Dagan, former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin and former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi) begged to prevent an Israeli attack on the Bushehr nuclear reactor.