Associates of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on the morning of April 30 that he was about to reveal amazing facts related to the Iranian nuclear agreement. That evening, Netanyahu addressed the public on live TV, exposing files and CDs retrieved by Mossad agents. This well-orchestrated "performance" of Netanyahu was also accompanied by a slide show.

What was going through the mind of Netanyahu when he decided to summon the international and Israeli media for his standup performance? Did he assume that his tiresome, childish presentation would blind viewers to the fact that he was selling them used goods? Could he have hoped that the fake drama he engineered based on secret Iranian nuclear files would convince the leaders of Europe, China and Russia to jettison the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran? Might Netanyahu have believed that he was presenting US President Donald Trump with the “smoking gun” enabling him to withdraw from the pact come the May 12 deadline for his decision?

One frightening answer to these questions is that Netanyahu is riding high on the Iranian files to divert attention from the police investigations dogging him and his wife. An equally frightening answer lies in a speech delivered in 1992 by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to top military brass, blasting the ubiquitous Israeli panacea “yihiye beseder,” Hebrew for “everything will be fine” — in short, “It’s OK.”

“This phrase, which many of us hear in Israel’s day-to-day life, is intolerable. These two words usually conceal all the things that aren’t OK: arrogance and an exaggerated feeling of self-confidence, power and authority, which are uncalled for,” Rabin said.