The widespread Israeli media coverage of the nuclear agreement between six world powers and Iran was accompanied by bitter cries of politicians from right and left alike who described the deal as a national disaster. This overpowered the important voices of those who argued that the agreement would actually improve Israel’s position, and not the reverse.

Two of the dissenting opinions are expressed by Isaac Ben-Israel — a reserve general, professor, chairman of the Israeli Space Agency and recipient of the Israel Defense Prize — and professor Ariel Levite, former deputy director general of the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission. These two experts wrote articles in which they presented the positive aspects of the agreement from Israel’s perspective. But their chances of garnering appropriate public attention were nil given the apocalyptic rage prophecies of the politicians.

From the moment the agreement was signed July 14, the Israeli public only heard one-sided commentary on the deal’s implications. The key personage who set the tone was, of course, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared that the agreement paves Iran’s way to the atom bomb. But even the heads of the opposition parties, Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, also took part in the effort. They lambasted the agreement as threatening to Israel, and targeted Netanyahu as being responsible for the debacle. Lapid even demanded a national commission of inquiry to investigate the failures in foreign policy that led to the bad agreement (in his words). “We thought it would be a bad agreement, but it is even worse than we expected,” Lapid said.

There are not enough words to list the headlines created by ministers and Knesset members, high- and low-level ones alike, including those with very limited knowledge of nuclear matters. All of them acted in concert to explain to the Israeli public that the agreement signed in Vienna paralleled the notorious Munich agreement of 1938. Politicians from right and left all regarded condemnation of the agreement as a litmus test of their patriotism. They fear that any positive statement regarding the deal will turn them into an enemy of the people. That is exactly as shallow as it sounds. Even mainstream media that does not want to be viewed, God forbid, as left wing or Jew haters, contributed its part in setting the tone of this narrative. And when the public discourse is filled with hysterical tirades and shallow patriotism, it is no wonder that those on the other side are unable to make their voices heard.