Netanyahu puts American Jews in tight spot

On the morning of June 28, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began the weekly Cabinet meeting with his usual press statement. At the time, it was already clear to anyone taking an interest in the subject that June 30 would not see the birth of an agreement — good, bad or reasonable — between the six world powers and Iran. Netanyahu, who has been religiously following the negotiations, was also cognizant of the fact that the dispute over the supervision mechanism of Iran’s nuclear sites was threatening to blow up the talks that were renewed this week in Vienna. But a public relations wizard like Netanyahu would not miss any deadline, even an expiring one, to attack the Obama administration. Also, a human rights advocate such as himself would not miss a newly issued State Department report documenting human rights violations around the world, including Iran.

“Two days before the final date set for the talks on achieving an agreement between the major powers and Iran,” Netanyahu said into the microphones, the world powers are “pushing aside” Iran’s crimes: executions, torture, violation of freedom of worship, Holocaust denial and persecution of the gay community. By the way, the report does not depict Israel as a paragon of sensitivity to human rights. Among other things, it accuses Israel of using excessive force against Palestinian civilians and abusing detainees. In addition, it is worth noting that Netanyahu himself and some of his friends on the right are conducting a campaign of de-legitimization of the Arab and leftist citizens of their own country.

Thus, at the Cabinet meeting, the prime minister accused those conducting negotiations with Iran, a thinly veiled reference to US President Barack Obama, of making growing concessions to Tehran and of “a pronounced retreat from the red lines that were recently declared — in public — by the major powers.” On June 29, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon must have remembered that it had been a long time since he challenged Israel’s main strategic diplomatic and defense asset, the United States. The minister, who usually works with military affairs correspondents, summoned the diplomatic affairs correspondents to convey through them the following message:

“The way negotiations were conducted allowed the Iranians to avoid that dilemma [between having a bomb and survival]. … But today there is no military threat on Iran, no diplomatic isolation, and there's been more talk of easing economic pressures since the interim agreement was signed.” That is why, Ya'alon summed up, the regime in Iran does not fear a domestic uprising and the dilemma was resolved in a manner undesirable for Israel.