Even before world powers signed the nuclear deal with Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already determined that its inspection mechanisms were full of holes. At an air force flight school graduation ceremony on June 25, Netanyahu warned that the “many tens of billions of dollars” that will flow into Iran’s coffers once sanctions are lifted will serve, among other things, to expand its conquests in the Middle East. The issue of the supervision over Iran’s nuclear facilities keeps taking center stage in the campaign Netanyahu is waging against the agreement among members of Congress and the American media. “You don’t have inspections within 24 hours — you have 24 days before you can inspect any site that you find suspicious in Iran,” Netanyahu said in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. “Can you imagine giving a drug dealer 24 days’ notice before you check the premises? That’s a lot of time to flush a lot of meth down the toilet.”
There’s no doubt that with a country such as Iran, which has gained a deserved reputation for hiding facilities and material that can be used to build nuclear weapons, signing a piece of paper is not enough. Internal operating procedures and external inspection mechanisms are an integral component of any agreement resolving or managing a conflict. Without exception. But it is only fitting that anyone demanding tighter inspections of his neighbor’s backyard take care of his own first. As the Babylonian Talmud says, "Remove the beam from between your eyes" (Arachin 16b), meaning, "Practice what you preach." Every house built in the occupied territories sits on a sufficient amount of dynamite to blow up any chance of ending the conflict with the Palestinians or forging regional peace.
