More than 20 years after former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin repeatedly explained how important it was to end the Arab-Israeli conflict before Iran would finish the development of its nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also recognized the linkage of the nuclear threat and the Palestinian problem.
In fact, for many years Netanyahu derisively rejected any attempt to hint at a linkage between the two, but in a speech he delivered this week (Dec. 8) to the Saban Forum, the prime minister said, “Our best efforts to reach Palestinian-Israeli peace will come to nothing if Iran succeeds in building atomic bombs.” Netanyahu continued to explain that “a nuclear-armed Iran would give even greater backing to the radical and terrorist elements in the region. It would undermine the chances of arriving at a negotiated peace.” The prime minister even warned that a nuclear Iran could undermine the peace deals Israel has with two of its neighbors — Egypt and Jordan.