Netanyahu’s Dangerous Gamble

Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a dangerous gamble in Washington: sabotaging the efforts of President Obama and five other great powers planning to finalize an agreement on the Iranian military nuclear program, at the risk of undermining Israeli-American relations.

The Israeli leader has always voiced his objections with regards to the question of a nuclear Iran since the beginning of the negotiations in 2003 among Tehran and six great powers (the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and Germany). According to him, it is inconceivable to negotiate an agreement of any kind with a country whose leaders swear to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Whoever has visited the Hebrew state and has the current Middle Eastern geopolitical situation in mind can understand the anguish of Netanyahu and his fellow citizens.

Time and again, the prime minister has informed the Bush and Obama administrations about his opposition. This has had no visible effect. The negotiations continued and could lead to an agreement a few days from now. So Netanyahu has decided to dramatically appeal to a pre-guaranteed Congress in Washington. If his speech was heartily applauded, it in no way addressed the heart of the issue. It did even worse.

What happened yesterday morning in the American capital is an event without historical precedent. The leader of a country whose security largely depends on the American military and financial umbrella has come forward to criticize a central element of U.S. security policy, openly defying its president at the same time. On Tuesday morning, none of the higher representatives of the Obama administration attended the address – Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry were abroad – and some 60 Democratic senators and representatives boycotted it. This has never happened before.

A Calculated Move

Netanyahu’s speech is not an error on his part. There were clear aims behind this provocative action. And this action will have both mid- and long-term consequences for Israeli-American relations that have been crumbling for the last 15 years. In short, until the end of the 1990s, there was a powerful consensus within the American political class with regards to Israel. No criticism was heard, and Washington aligned itself with Israeli positions. Former President Jimmy Carter, connoisseur of the Middle East and architect of the Israeli-Egyptian peace, broke this consensus by no longer hesitating to denounce the actions of Israelis in Palestine. The Sept. 11 attacks created other breaches, into which rushed experts, politicians, strategists and military men and women.

The first Israeli prime minister has just turned President Obama against him on a question that is vital for the USA. The president has repeated to anyone who will listen that he supported a diplomatic approach to addressing the question of nuclear Iran and that his country would not let itself be pulled into a war that it did not choose.

He is not alone in this affair. Five other great powers are also deeply engaged in this negotiation. In trying to sabotage this process, Netanyahu is attacking these powers, as well as appointing himself the sole judge of what is good or bad for world security. Yet, these powers know exactly what they are doing by negotiating the terms of a future agreement with Iran, aiming to neutralize the military use of nuclear energy – forbidden by the Non-Proliferation Treaty – and to permit authorized nuclear energy for civil use.

The former chief of Mossad (the Israeli secret service), Meir Dagna, thinks that Netanyahu is the one who has “done the most harm to Israel” with regard to Iranian issues. His speech also deepened the divisions between Israel and its only true ally. This does not bode well for the future.