The Iranian Bluff

For the last two decades, both indirectly and directly, the main Western powers have been negotiating with Iran for it to give up (temporarily) its nuclear ambitions against the lifting of sanctions and other valuable relief to the regime of the mullahs.

Invariably, the Iranian negotiators came out winners in the Levantine bazaar negotiations they are the world experts in. President Obama (do you remember, the one of the infamous red lines over Syria?) finally caved in and signed the most absurd one-sided treaty that rivals Chamberlain’s Munich. The Iranians gave up virtually nothing and obtained nearly everything. Only one man had the audacity and the eloquence to stand up against his American partners and shout out at the gate of the palace of the king that this was not a treaty, but a document of surrender. To no avail. All the great powers were keen to put an end to the Iranian Nuclear matter and push the envelope to their successors. They said that there was no other workable option on the table, basically admitting that Iran was not beatable with military means.

A decade later that same man, Benyamin Netanyahu, was able to call the Teheran bluff. Despite heavy American pressure once again, and only because the Iranians made the mistake to brazenly attack Israel, repeatedly, with a potentially lethal cocktail of hundreds of drones, rockets, and ballistic missiles, Israel showed that the Iranian regime is a naked king. By first destroying the threat from the proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, and then going after Iran’s missile production facilities and its air defences, Israel demonstrated that the only option to take away the nuclear threat is not to appease the serpent, but to cut its head. While Israel didn’t yet cut off the proverbial head, again because of pressure from the White House which didn’t want a major crisis days before the elections, it has showed the world how to do it. May it happen very soon. Kol hakavod Mr. Netanyahu!