Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, moved pre-emptively to denounce the deal on Iran’s nuclear programme, even before the details had emerged.
Heading a chorus of condemnation from Israeli politicians – including members of his rightwing coalition – Netanyahu said the emerging agreement was a “capitulation,”and a mistake of historic proportions.
“Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said at a meeting with the Dutch foreign minister, Bert Koenders, in Jerusalem.
“Many of the restrictions that were supposed to prevent it from getting there will be lifted. Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world. This is a bad mistake of historic proportions.”
The deal was also denounced by hardline former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman as “a total surrender to terror”.
Netanyahu’s combative comments came as criticism of his handling of the diplomacy around Iran has grown over the past two days, as a deal appeared increasingly imminent. Leading the charge have been Netanyahu’s political opponents, among them Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, who denounced Netanyahu’s diplomatic campaign as a “colossal failure”.
“I also am not thrilled by Obama’s polices. But Netanyahu crossed a line that caused the White House to stop listening to Israel,” Lapid said. “In the last year we weren’t even in the arena, we had no representative in Vienna, our intelligence cooperation was harmed, and the door to the White House was closed to us,” he added.
“He should resign because if you promise for years that only you can prevent this deal and then it’s signed – you’re responsible,” Lapid declared.
That criticism has been echoed by other senior opposition figures, including the Zionist Union’s Isaac Herzog, who – while opposing a deal – has criticised Netanyahu’s alienation of Obama White House. Zionist Union MK – member of the Knesset – Shelly Yacimovich added that Netanyahu should “immediately cease and desist from confronting the Americans”.
“Now that this dangerous, damaging agreement with Iran has become a fait accompli, Netanyahu must stop disseminating prophecies of doom, come to his senses and regroup, in order to improve Israel’s position and defend its interests when the agreement is implemented,” Yacimovich said.
The increasingly harsh assessment of Israel’s failure to have any real leverage in the talks has been echoed in the Hebrew media.
Columnist Ben Caspit, a long-time critic, has been among the most scathing. He said: “No matter how we look at it, this is a personal failure for Netanyahu, who has been promoting himself for two decades now on one central agenda alone: preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear capability. That is the task that he promised he would perform, and he has failed.
“In all his innumerable speeches and statements, Netanyahu did not promise merely to make a speech against Iranian nuclear capability. Nor did he promise to act against Iranian nuclear capability in either the international arena or in the UN or in Congress or in the Likud central committee. He promised to actually prevent Iranian nuclear capability.”
That was echoed in the Jerusalem Post by Yossi Melman, who even wondered whether the deal would be as bad as Netanyahu was likely to make out. “Israel exaggerated the Iranian threat and portrayed it in monstrous proportions,” Melman wrote. “The nuclear deal in the making is far from perfect,” he added, “but the skies are not going to fall tomorrow”.
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