Bibi Netanyahu, Show Leadership!

Bibi Netanyahu, Show Leadership!

An open letter by a compatriot

Simha Nyr, adv.

Shalom Bibi,

In your address to the Congress, two weeks before the elections to the Knesset, you said:

I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political. That was never my intention.

Israelis and others don’t really believe you, but I do. I do, because you are an honest man.

Some ask what was so urgent to do it just on the eve of the elections, but I’m sure you really believed that the Iranian nuclear threat is so imminent (“weeks away”, as you said), that your speech will convince President Barack Obama to rethink this issue, change his mind for a “much-much better” deal with Iran, and direct the White House to do the homework necessary to block the Iranians – including directives to prepare all the steps (military and others) needed to defend Israel in case of an Iranian refusal to accept a “much-much better” agreement – as you implicitly insisted on in your speech – all of which in those two weeks (Mar. 3 to Mar. 17), lest, in absence of the desirable agreement, Iran will handle a nuclear attack on Israel – within those two weeks.

I believe your concerns that the then impending deal with Iran “will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them”, and Iran getting nuclear weapons imminently endangers the very existence of the State of Israel.

I believe your sincerity in expressing your concerns, because you are an honest man, and, facing such imminent threats (“weeks away”) to the country you are the prime minister of, there was no justification to wait more than two weeks, and address the Congress after the elections.

Yet, as you mentioned the Jewish holiday of Purim, let me use another Hebrew word of the same root: Ha’pur naffal (“the die is cast”), and – subject to technical provisions regarding the implementation – the deal with Iran is fait accompli, and the immediate question is “what now”.

In your speech you said:

We are no longer … powerless to defend ourselves. … the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves. … Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand.

We all know what stood behind this hint-slash-threat: if the negotiations with the Iranians will not yield a “much-much better” deal, to the full satisfaction of Israel, Israel will feel free to do anything needed – including a military strike – to stop Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons (which, as you say, is just “weeks away from having enough enriched uranium for an entire arsenal of nuclear weapons”), in spite of any international objection – of friend or foes whatsoever.

However, as I’ve said above, the die is cast, the deal is made, and you, as Israel’s prime minister, you have to decide what to do next.

One of the options is to say that “though the deal made is not our wettest dream, we are aware that ‘politics is the art of possible’, we do believe that State Secretary John Kerry and his co-negotiators did their utmost to achieve the best deal possible, and we are rest assured that the U.S., our best ally, together with all the Free World, will react immediately and harshly once the Iranians break the deal agreed upon by them too”.

Yet, by your best judgment, you still can’t put up with “a deal based on this framework”, which, as you said to President Obama, “would threaten the very survival of Israel”, and, as you yourself set the urgency, the endangerment to Israel is so imminent – “weeks away” – and “doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb; it paves Iran’s path to the bomb”, as you said in your address to the Congress.

So, Bibi, accepting your true judgment and considerations – and, as I said above, trusting you as an honest man I do accept them – there is now no alternative but to “stand alone”, according to what you yourself said to the Congress: “We, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves. … even if Israel has to stand alone”.

Will Israel stand, as you said? Yes, she will – in Hebrew, as you know, both country (ארץ) and state (מדינה) are feminine – relying not only on your speech, but also on Israeli senior security officials, like the Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, the commander of the Israeli Air Force, who said this quite explicitly, just few days ago.

Yes, you can carry on speaking, you and your Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister, Dr. Yuval Steinitz, who said recently that Israel will press world powers to “dramatically change” or scuttle their nuclear deal with Iran, which makes “irresponsible concessions”, and added that “We have to convince the world that it is wrong to assume there is no alternative to the deal, and that the alternative is not necessarily declaring war” and “there is a third alternative — to stand firm and force Iran to make serious concessions”.

Ok, I agree with every word, but I’m very small to have my consent regarded at all.

In order to change – dramatically on not – the terms of the agreement, we have to get the consent of the six world powers to demand, and the Iranians to accept, any change in the deal. Let me start with the formers: Do you, Bibi, really think that the six world powers (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States) will say to the Iranians “rega-rega (just a minute), the State of Israel doesn’t agree to the deal, and says we have to stand firm and force you to make serious concessions, and therefore we request to dramatically change the deal”.

No, Bibi, the chances that this will happen are “at most zero” – and, as the incumbent acting Minister of Justice of Israel, you definitely know what I’m speaking about – leave alone differences among the six powers themselves, and not to speak about the chances (much-much less than zero!) that the Iranians will agree to make any change, had the powers did.

So, Bibi, by the freedom of speech we have – not unlimited in Israel itself, but that’s “another opera” – we can ask, request and demand any change, modification or amendment of the deal.

Albeit such a scenario isn’t absolutely improbable, it is a matter of months and years away, even if it will come true, but, as you say, the imminence of the danger to Israel’s very existence is a matter of “weeks away”, which leaves us no option, but the military action.

Show leadership, Bibi, and just do it – do it right now!

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