If US President Barack Obama manages to overcome congressional opposition to the Iran deal, Israel will go down in history as the only country in the world that tried to rescind the international agreement endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council. If the deal’s opponents get the upper hand, Israel will bear sole responsibility for a conflict between the United States and Iran and for dealing a serious blow to the prestige of the world’s leading superpower, a country vital to Israel’s security.

In an Aug. 5 speech, Obama stated with confidence, “Every nation in the world that has commented publicly, with the exception of the Israeli government, has expressed support.” He went on to say, “It would be an abrogation of my constitutional duty to act against my best judgment simply because it causes temporary friction with a dear friend and ally.” Note the reference to a “dear friend and ally,” purposely using singular nouns, to denote Israel, not “dear friends and allies.”

How did Israel become the last bad boy standing in the campaign against the agreement? What happened to Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni states in the region that were also intimidated by the Shiite nuclear threat? Ever since the start of the negotiations between the six world powers and Tehran on its nuclear program, we had read in all the papers that the Gulf states were also swimming against the stream, right alongside Israel, opposing the agreement. Even after the agreement seemed to be a fait accompli, top officials in Jerusalem and an international bevy of acclaimed experts agreed that “Saudi Arabia is with us,” in a concerted effort to prevent Obama from signing off on a “bad agreement.”

On May 7, Netanyahu had announced that the Iranian threat “creates joint interests and also perhaps opportunities to develop alliances and possibly move peace forward.” He actually promised to look into it. The illusion of a “partnership of interests” with the moderate Sunni front was shattered as early as the Camp David summit between Obama and Gulf state leaders, on May 15. The joint statement at the conclusion of the gathering asserted, “They reviewed the status of negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran, and emphasized that a comprehensive, verifiable deal that fully addresses the regional and international concerns about Iran’s nuclear program is in the security interests of GCC member states as well as the United States and the international community.” Nevertheless, even after the summit, Netanyahu continued to stick to the opposite position compared to those of the Gulf states in general and Saudi Arabia in particular.