Man, some people just have no sense of loyalty! Here, Barack Obama throws his support, and even U.S. taxpayer dollars, behind Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents in an attempt to sway the recent election. The plan failed, but how do leaders of the liberal Zionist Union thank the U.S. president? By announcing a plan for dealing with Iran’s nuclear capabilities that is more hawkish than anything Netanyahu said:
In a position paper released Sunday, the Zionist Union’s leaders demand the United States to “give legitimization ahead of time to any action Israel will need to take to protect its safety”.
[…]
The crux of [Isaac] Herzog and [Tzipi] Livni’s plan is a call on the American administration to commit in advance to approve an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Iran violates the framework agreement signed a week and a half ago by trying to produce nuclear weapons.
Others in the Zionist Union have spoken out.
The head of the party’s Knesset delegation, MK Eitan Cabel, elaborated on his Facebook page: “I refuse to join those applauding the agreement with Iran, because the truth is it keeps me awake at night. President Obama promises that if the Iranians cheat, the world will know, but isn’t that exactly what the Americans promised after the agreement with North Korea?”
The senior Labor Party official continued: “When a crazy religious regime with a proven track record of terrorism and cheating receives permission to get that close to a nuclear bomb, I am very worried. The fact that the man who is in charge of making sure the deal won’t be broken has a proven record of mocking his own redlines, makes me even more worried.”
Calling Prime Minister Netanyahu’s efforts against the Iran deal “a correct struggle,” the Labor Party MK emphasized that he is “standing behind Netanyahu” because “in the face of a nuclear Iran, there is no coalition and there is no opposition–we are all Israelis.”
But it is not just the politicians, but Obama’s pals in the liberal Israeli press that are trashing his Iran deal.
Aluf Benn, the editor of the leftist Haaretz which criticizes everything Netanyahu says and does, wrote on April 5 that Netanyahu’s call that Iran recognize Israel’s right to exist was originally the idea of Labor Party chairman Herzog:
Netanyahu hinted at a possible political ramification of the interim nuclear agreement when he adopted Herzog’s proposal to demand that Iran recognize Israel as part of the final agreement. Netanyahu is demanding a recognition of Israel’s “right to exist” and is not stating what Israel will give in return for such recognition, but a statement he made at the end of Friday’s cabinet meeting indicated some moderation of his demands. A month ago, in his speech before the Congress, Netanyahu demanded that Iran desist from its “aggression against its neighbors” and from its support of international terror. Now he is justifiably focusing on Israel’s interests rather than on his touching concern for the well being of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates.
Israeli author Ari Shavit, who has written about the need for Israel to make more concessions to the Palestinians, also slammed Obama’s deal in Politico :
Iran is not an Israel-only issue. Iran should not be a Republican, or conservative or a hawkish issue. If Iran goes nuclear, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and the Gulf states will go nuclear. If Iran goes nuclear, Israel will have to change its responsible and restrained nuclear policy. If Iran goes nuclear, the Middle East will become a multi-player nuclear arena, that no one can manage and no one can control. Worried about ISIS? Anxious about Al Qaeda? Shocked by the carnage in Syria? Imagine what will happen when the most unstable region in the world becomes nuclearized. One outcome will be even more extremism. A second outcome will be unceasing conventional wars. A third outcome will be the proliferation of nuclear capabilities in the hands of non- state players that will use them, sooner or later, to catastrophic results. The overall outcome will be a strategic nightmare that will first disrupt the everyday life of Tel Aviv and Riyadh, then Paris and London and finally New York and Chicago. So the most urgent issue of day should not pit Israelis against Americans, Democrats against Republicans, liberals against conservatives. If Iran is nuclearized, everyone’s values and way of life will be endangered. If the Middle East is nuclearized, the 21st century will become a century of nuclear terror and nuclear horror. [Emphasis added]
While Obama continues to bash Netanyahu and Republicans for opposing his Iran deal, the truth that Obama refuses to recognize is that the criticism of his Iran sellout comes from all sides of the political spectrum — in Israel and in the U.S.
Cross-posted at The Lid
