It’s been quite a few weeks since Israelis woke up to the sound of threats surrounding the Iranian missile program. I mean Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threats, obviously. Though the prime minister could once be counted on to drone on constantly about all the risks inherent in a nuclear Iran, especially before elections and during coalition negotiations, he has suddenly gone silent. The “point of no return,” which became an integral part of the Israeli public’s lexicon, has all but vanished. The same is true of the red line that Netanyahu drew on a cartoon caricature of a bomb during his speech before the United Nations on Sept. 27, 2012.
Israeli public opinion has been distracted by a new red line, which has pushed the Iranian threat into a corner. Yes, another threat is grabbing all the headlines, though it would probably be more correct to say that it is making the headlines, while it extracts all those Israeli politicians who used the Iranian nuclear campaign to their advantage from a proverbial dead end.
