URI AVNERY

 

One has to choose: Benjamin Netanyahu is either incredibly shrewd or incredibly foolish. Take his Iran policy. Actually, there is little to choose from.



Netanyahu has no other policy to speak off. According to him, Iran constitutes a mortal danger to Israel. If it obtains a nuclear weapon, it will use it to annihilate Israel.



It must be stopped by any means.  So what did Netanyahu do? For years, he alarmed the world. Every day the cry went out: Save Israel! Prevent the destruction of the Jewish State! Prevent a Second Holocaust! Prevent Iran from producing The Bomb!



The world did not take any notice.  It was busy with many other matters. There are crises galore everywhere, all the time.



Economic depressions. Plagues. The warming of the earth. But Netanyahu did not let off. He used every rostrum, from the Knesset to the United States Congress, to shout his message.



At long last, a weary world paid heed. OK, the Jews warn of the Iranian bomb? So let’s do something to prevent it. Not just something. No.



Let’s get all the great powers of the world together to compel Iran to end this nonsense. And they did. The USA, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - practically the whole world - commanded Iran to start negotiations.



There was only one single issue: preventing Iran from getting The Bomb. Nothing else mattered. Compared to this giant issue, everything else was insignificant.



And then something unexpected happened. Iran’s political system replaced their loudmouth president with a very different one: a soft-spoken, eminently reasonable politician.



Negotiations started, and Iran sent an even more soft-spoken, eminently reasonable diplomat to conduct them. The foreign ministers of the world were enchanted.



After playing a little hard-to-get, Iran accepted an agreement. The world got, more or less, everything it wanted. No bomb for a long time. Very intrusive inspection procedures.



(They were not really needed. Up-to-date espionage techniques can quickly detect any movements toward a bomb.)



Everybody was happy. Everybody, that is, except Netanyahu. He was furious. What kind of an agreement is this? The Iranians will get the bomb.



If not now, then in 15 years. Or in 25. Or in 50. The Iranians will cheat! Persians always cheat! They can’t help it! It’s in their blood!



And anyway, even if they don’t get the bomb, the Iranians will get legitimization. And money. They will support anti-Israeli terrorists.



The huge Israeli propaganda machine was set in motion. The terrible agreement is being denounced from every rooftop.



Actually, the play is over. An agreement signed by the entire world cannot be made to disappear with a puff from Bibi.



It will be there, even if the US Congress does vote against it and overrides the presidential veto. The world is tired of Netanyahu’s whims. The man got what he wanted, so what now?!



I believe that the Iranians did not want the bomb very much anyhow. According to all available evidence, the agreement aroused joy in the streets of Tehran.



The prevalent mood seems to be: “At long last we’ve got rid of this whole nonsense!” But the bomb that isn’t has already caused immense damage to Israel.



Much worse than if it existed in some dark cavern. All Israelis agree that the one supreme asset Israel has is its special, unparalleled relationship with the US.



It is unique. Unique and priceless. In military terms, Israel gets the most up-to-date weapon systems, practically for nothing.



No less important, Israel can not conduct any war for more than a few days without an airlift of munitions and spare parts from the US.



But that is only a small element of our national security. Even more important is the knowledge that you cannot threaten Israel without confronting the entire might of the United States.



This is a formidable umbrella, the envy of the world. More than that, every country in the world knows that if you want something from Washington DC, and especially from the US Congress, you better pass through Jerusalem and pay a price. How much is that worth?



And then there is the veto. Not the little veto Obama will use to neutralize a Congress vote against the agreement, but the Big Veto, the one that blocks every single UN Security Council resolution to censure Israel, even for actions that cry to high heaven.



A 49-year-old occupation. Hundreds of thousands of settlers who contravene international law. Almost daily killings.



Condemn Israel? Forget it. Sanctions against Israel? Don’t make us laugh. As long as the almighty US protects Israel, it can do whatever it wants.



All this is now put in question. Perhaps the damage has already been done, like hidden cracks in the foundations of a building. The scale of the damage may become apparent only in coming years.



Another hidden crack is the rift between Israel and a large part of the Jews around the world, especially in the US. Israel claims to be the “Nation-State of the Jewish People”.



All Jews throughout the world owe it unquestioning allegiance. A mighty apparatus of “Jewish organizations” is policing the vassals. Woe to the Jew who dares to object.



Not anymore. A rift has opened within world Jewry, that probably cannot be repaired. Commanded to choose between their president and Israel, many American Jews prefer their president, or just opt out.



Who is the anti-Semite who has managed to bring all this evil about? No other than the Prime Minister of Israel himself.



Does this trouble the world? Not really. We Israelis believe that we are the center of the world. But it ain’t necessarily so.



While Israel is obsessed with the Iranian bomb, great changes are taking place in our region. What is happening now is a political earthquake.



The landscape is changing dramatically. Mountains disappear, new ones are formed. In the middle of it all, Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) is attracting Muslim youth from all over the world.



In the middle of this raging storm, Netanyahu is a man of the past, a person whose perceptions were formed decades ago, in another world. Instead of addressing this new world, with its great dangers and great opportunities, he fumbles around with the non-existent Bomb.



So is the man shrewd or just foolish? A magician or just a magician’s apprentice?



— Uri Avnery is an activist and an advocate of Palestinian rights. He can be reached at avnery@actcom.co.il