Netanyahu anti-Iran drive strains US ties, isolates Israel: president

The Israeli president expressed his concern that Netanyahu’s actions had led to the isolation of Israel and “are liable to hurt Israel itself”. Further, diplomats and experts who have worked in this area for decades believe that this agreement is the right path to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. It takes away the vast majority of the nuclear capabilities Iran has now and would prevent Iran from enriching uranium for a nuclear bomb for 15 years – keeping America and Americans safer. “And, of course, those calling for war labeled themselves strong and decisive while dismissing those who disagreed as weak, even appeasers of a malevolent adversary”. But if sanctions don’t work, how can you argue that the Iranians will now be deterred from cheating by the threat of … sanctions?

President Obama defends the Iran nuclear deal. This is the guy who was going to get us out of these conflicts, but now he has been pulled back in, and he’s trying to do it in the most limited way possible.

Rivlin told Haaretz that he is “troubled” by Netanyahu’s efforts to convince members of the US Congress to reject the nuclear deal, despite the firm stance of President Barack Obama.

Israeli Consul General Andy David began his brief economic development tour of the state in Missoula – a tour that looks to enhance relationships between U.S. and Israeli citizens.

Obama singled out Israel as an opponent of the deal, but said it would also benefit from an Iran blocked from gaining nuclear weapons. He refuted the claims that he wouldn’t accept any deal and that he had offered no alternative.

This moral certainty powered his speech Wednesday at American University, chosen as a venue to evoke President John F. Kennedy’s famous address there that laid the foundations for detente with the Soviet Union.

The deal won’t bring peace or security for Israel or anyone else, Netanyahu said.

“The current Iranian regime, act with a risky combination of aggressiveness, fundamentalism, and state sponsored terrorism – threatening even without nuclear weapons, freedom and democracy in this region and around the world“, Rivlin said. Even before the deal was announced the Emergency Committee for Israel (ECI) ran ads in New York, urging voters to call Schumer and tell him to oppose the deal.

However, if the administration can win the backing of a significant number of congressional Democrats, it will secure the one-third of votes needed to sustain a presidential veto.

Congress has until mid-late September to consider whether to exercise legislation that would kill the deal.

“This is simply not a partisan issue in Israel”, he stressed, adding that his own domestic rival, Labour Party leader Isaac Herzog, was also against the deal.

Until now, the deal had garnered opposition only from four Democrats, none in the leadership. In each case there is obtuseness about how real human beings react to real events, whether it is reaction to the “birth pangs of democracy” in Iraq or to attempts to coerce a proud Iran. It’s the most important treaty of our time. Israel is the only country that in consistent statements Iran calls for its destruction. Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon in an interview to German weekly magazine Der Spiegel said that he bore no responsibility “for the life expectancy of Iranian scientists”, local media reports said.

We are not foreigners who happen to live in America while our hearts reside elsewhere.