8 thoughts on “Israel’s ‘Least-Bad’ Reporting on Iran Deal – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. It is very important to note that this is not a deal between America and Iran: the Iranians would never have signed up to anything that was.

    It is a deal between all the great powers and Iran. This makes it possible for Iran to sign, and it makes it just about possible for the Saudis to accept it. (The Omanis actually helped set up the contacts so it’s not as anti-Arab as the Israeli media would like to think.)

    The key feature is, though, that it’s a deal between the elected government of Iran and all the great powers. Which is right and proper. However, Iran has a Y-shaped chain of command and the Supreme Leader’s shadow government has its own military and its own (appropriately shadowy) sources of revenue. The Supreme Leader reserves the right to countermand the Koran and other long-accepted religious traditions if necessary; reneging on an agreement signed by the President would seem pretty trivial by comparison.

    This is why the deal has a six-month trial period built in, but also why it’s designed to let the Iranian President deliver the initial financial benefits of the deal to his people quite quickly. The world’s great powers must show the Iranian people that their ELECTED leader is beginning to call the shots, and give the Iranian President as much cooperation and respect as they can.

    It took General Attaturk decades to unpick the theological shadow governments that he started with in Turkey (yes there was in effect more than one) in favour of constitutional government, and the process may take just as long in Iran. That isn’t a problem as long as the process continues steadily without interruption.

    There are two factors which can disrupt all this:
    Hezbollah, whose actions the Iranian President will be held accountable for by Americans in particular, but over which he has no control because Iranian sponsorship of Hezbollah is entirely under the control of the IRG, part of the Supreme Leader’s Shadow Government.

    The Tea Party and others of a certain awkward tendency recently described by Jack Straw in the United States, who do appear to see this deal as something between their own president and his Iranian counterpart, which they are free to disrupt and sabotage at will. If this international deal with Iran is sabotaged by America’s internal politics, America’s position in the world will ratchet down another several notches.

  2. The only reason why Israel and Saudi Arabia are manic about a peace deal is that both are afraid of their nations being superseded by Iran.

    It’s also in Bibi’s interest to keep the Israel populace in a state of fear. If it wasn’t for a common enemy Israel could rally against, the orthodox and seculars would be at each other’s throats- and I mean this literally.

  3. After KO Blow, Netanyahu Coming to His
    Senses

    Netanyahu sending security adviser to U.S. for
    talks on Iran deal
    (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister
    Benjamin Netanyahu said he would soon send a team led by his
    national security adviser to Washington for talks with the United
    States on a final nuclear deal with Iran. “I spoke last night with
    President Obama. We agreed that in the coming days an Israeli team
    led by the national security adviser, Yossi Cohen, will go out to discuss
    with the United States the permanent accord with Iran,” he said in
    public remarks to members of his Likud party. “This accord must
    bring about one outcome: the dismantling of Iran’s
    military nuclear capability
    ,” said Netanyahu, who has
    described Sunday’s interim deal between world powers and Iran as a
    historic mistake. Israel’s parliamentary opposition leader Isaac Herzog urged Netanyahu to reduce
    tensions with Washington over the Iran deal. Netanyahu should
    minimize confrontation with the Obama administration “and restore
    the intimate dialogue with the leaders of the big powers”, Herzog,
    the newly elected head of Israel’s left-of-centre Labour Party,
    told Israel Radio.

    Netanyahu’s Ex-Aide: Israel Can Stop Iran ‘For a
    Very Long Time’

  4. One can only hope that Netanyahoo’s team and Bibi himself will confront Obama aggressively, drawing down on Israel’s “sympathizers” to increase the tension. Given the preliminary deal and the US public’s aversion to more war in the ME, the Lobby and Bibi may suffer yet more serious bad PR in the US and with Congress, as with the Syria crisis. If Bibi is as irrational as Richard claims, he will make this mistake. I am crossing my fingers.

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