Some circles in the United States are jabbing at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Iranian nuclear program referring to him as an isolated leader. The New York Times went as far as saying that his isolation is hardly surprising given Netanyahu’s lack of friends.
Netanyahu seems mentally unprepared to absorb the new rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. He has invested a lot of time and energy to have the international community take a firm stance against Iran’s nuclear program. Key to his strategy is to keep the United States on his side. To him, American is the only power that he could not afford should his efforts to keep the pressure on Tehran continue.
With the new twist in Iran’s foreign policy and the readiness of the American administration to call Iran’s bluff, Netanyahu is off-balance. His efforts of pounding the drums of war backfired. It is for this reason that the New York Times focused on Netanyahu’s isolation.
Not surprisingly, if someone wants to delve into Netanyahu’s isolation, he or she will find that his current isolation is of his own making. Over the last years, Netanyahu has done nothing but undermining the prospects for peace with the Palestinians. His policies, wrangles with Obama, obsessive focus on Iran, and settlement expansion only created a sort of international isolation of Israel particularly in Europe.
Not long ago, Netanyahu tried to drive a wedge between the Iranian leadership and the people of Iran. He addressed the Iranian young population saying, “If the people of Iran were free, they could wear jeans, listen to Western music and have free elections.” It is really hard to see a strong connection between wearing jeans and the nuclear program.
Implicit in Netanyahu’s logic is the understanding that if Iranian leadership gets away with a nuclear bomb, then it will not be possible to change the Iranian leadership and the youth in Iran will be stuck with no chance to join the free and modern world.
And yet, politics is not about wearing jeans. Many, including American senior officials, see in Rowhani’s election as the new president of Iran a harbinger of an important change whether in Iran’s domestic politics or in its foreign policy. Equally important, there is a growing feeling among American decision makers that Rowhani was elected with one mission: To take Iran away from the collision course with the West even if the price is to concede the nuclear program.
Of course Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, is in the loop. In fact, such a change will not be objectively possible without his consent. The constitution endows him with an overriding authority and literally no change in Iran’s foreign policy can take place without his green light. Seen in this way, many American officials interpret the election of Rowhani as a clear signal of Khamenei’s coming to terms with the need to tame Iran’s nuclear program.
This American reading clashes with Netanyahu’s obsession with Iran’s nuclear program. He has warned that Iran has opted for strategic deception and that the election of Rowhani is nothing but a smokescreen to conceal a different reality. This explains his media blitz last week when he gave many interviews to influential media outlets in key western countries.
That said, his media blitz reflects his growing isolation. The man believes that his duty is to save the Jews from another Holocaust. The Iranian nuclear weapon — if it ever materializes, would pose an existential threat to the Jews in Israel. On more than one occasion, he hinted that his country would go as far as taking a unilateral military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites, if necessary. His commitment to the strategy of denying Iran the ability to produce nuclear weapon is unshaking.
If the next meeting between Iran and the P5+1 lay the ground for genuine cooperation and if Iran demonstrates its readiness to take the bold step and reverse its nuclear program, then the United States will find it hard to justify the continuation of the sanction regime. Indeed, Obama warned Israel that his country would soon start easing the sanctions on Iran.
The more obsessive Netanyahu becomes, the more isolated he will be. Perhaps, this may lead to his isolation at home, a scenario with grave consequences for his political survival in the foreseeable future. But what if Iran is really buying time?
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