Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now at his best. He thrives when he runs political campaigns; he is the master of using scare tactics to elicit public support. His current campaign is geared toward members of the US Congress and Israeli public opinion. He is determined to fight US President Barack Obama on his own political turf, siding with the Republicans, and to be perceived in Israel as the ultimate “defender of the Jewish people.” To him, this is about history, or rather about history books.

Netanyahu has engaged the most effective lobby in Congress — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — to pressure all members of Congress, especially the 13 Democratic senators needed to override the eventual veto that Obama will use on a negative congressional vote.

The focus in the “nay” camp is on the struggle, not its consequences. Given that Obama has placed his credibility and legacy on the line, with the support of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the Republican-Netanyahu-AIPAC battle is virtually a hopeless cause.

A senior member of AIPAC’s political leadership told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “We have decided to go all out on the issue, despite this being a partisan cause. We cannot stand by when the prime minister of Israel makes defeating the Iran deal his cause celebre. This is the first time in AIPAC’s history that the lobby challenges a US president on such an issue; an issue where the president's political credibility is on the line. Secretly, some of us pray not to succeed in this battle.”