One shady leader being investigated trying to appeal to another shady leader being investigated. Great for television. Not so much for world peace or US interests. If Israel wants to try and do something about what it considers to be a problem, Israel should try and do something. Trump, meanwhile, can explain to the North Koreans that he would never do such a thing to them.
1
The BBC reported yesterday that Mahmoud Abbas blamed the Holocaust on the Jew's usurious behavior, and not on anti-Semitism. He also denied that the Jews had a connection to the land [of Israel]. The Israeli government is certainly far from perfect, but there seems to be a bias in liberal circles against reporting on or discussing the often outrageous anti-Semitism of Arabic leaders.
2
This could be said to be a fair point, but does the anti-semitism of Abbas excuse the lies and corruption of Netanyahu pointed out in this, and many others articles?
2 wrongs will never make a right.
This is spot on; Bibi's information is OLD HAT. All 9 nuclear weapons states carefully document and protect their nuclear work.
The most important part of the JCPOA is that the Arak reactor that could have produced weapons grade plutonium (Pu) is repurposed. Over 90% of the nuclear weapons produced in the world use Pu, not highly enriched uranium.
Arak is almost identical to Israel’s Dimona reactor that was built by France to produce weapons-grade Pu. Israel hundreds of nuclear weapons and can deliver them anywhere, including the U.S. and Europe.
As an NPT signatory, Iran has pledged not to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has complied fully with the JCPOA, as verified by the IAEA. The IAEA inspects all known Iranian facilities, including Natanz and Fordo.
Israel neither confirms nor denies its nuclear weapons. It’s one of only three states that have never signed the NPT.
The president and congressional republicans now threaten to leave the JCPOA and reinstate sanctions. Trump, Bolton, and Pompeo have limited knowledge of the Iran nuclear deal, nuclear materials, and the production of nuclear weapons.
This information comes from open-source books and the internet. I’m a physicist; my field is nuclear safeguards, nonproliferation, and arms control. In 38 years at Los Alamos National Laboratory, EURATOM, DOE, and the IAEA, I’ve devoted my life to nonproliferation. This issue is very important to me.
4
There is the fact that Iran had been developing both nuclear weapons and the means for delivery while lying and denying.
The agreement is bad for U.S. interests and the world. It merely delays Iran's development of these weapons.
1
Israel's ambassador to the U.S. has stated Netanyahu was not pressuring our president: Trump has already been given his marching orders.
1
"... claiming it was a “political agreement” whose validity expired along with the Obama administration that negotiated it."
It was indeed a "political agreement", and subject to being cancelled by a future administration, precisely because Obama was unwilling to follow the treaty process as defined by the United States Constitution. Reap what you sow. Had Obama followed the US Constitution instead of "using his pen and his phone" then the "Iran Treaty" would not be subject to rejection by Trump or anyone else.
1
Ah. A "political agreement." That explains everything.
Given that, umm, logic, the U.S. should pull out of NATO, the WTO, the U.N., the Paris Climate Accords... oh, wait. Well then, the TPP... oh, wait.
In any case, Bibi, it remains to be seen whether the U.S. is going to continue to carry Israel's water.
Got war?
1
True, false, or otherwise, congress should immediately inform the White House that any military action against Iran is NOT covered by the 2003 authorization for military action against Iraq. Congress needs to re-assert its role under the constitution in regard to any military action overseas. Israel, to my knowledge, does not have any vote in the matter. If Mr. Trump is contemplating war with Iran, let him go to congress and make his case. I am sure, we the people, will have something to say about it too.
1
Iran has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which authorizes international monitoring of their nuclear programme.
Israel has not.
Pot. Kettle Black.
1
Isreael must stay in the news , it cannot tolerate an absence no mater how short it is.
For Israel, despite its substantial technological progress, was born in and by the Media; USA and West European in particular!
The more worrisome the news are the better for nothing attracts attention and solidarity, by the West, though appreciably decreasing, like Israel is in Peril!
Israel had , in its short span of nationhood, managed to identify it self as part of the Western world with the same friends and enemies particularly when it comes to Islam, Islamist and the Islamic World! For Imperialist/colonialist/ confessional-religious reaso the West went along but, except for the USA , is gradually discovering the the trap it was sent to by Istarael and is reconsideringThat reconsideration cannot possibly maintain the present state of affairs!
.
,
Benny, it's Don! Yeah, how you doin? Okay, I need a favor. Kelly won't do it like Powell did, so will you put together a dog and pony on Iran? Doesn't matter if the material is old, my people won't know the difference! Okay, thanks, I owe you...
3
Mr. Simon,
Your information is not only flawed but obviously biased.
Have you been to Israel? Fewer Israelis speak English?
Mr. Netanyahu presented proof that the Iranian regime has military goals with its nuclear program.
Iran has been caught in lies by Israel and to allow Iran ANY nuclear capability in the future may be the harbinger of doom to the entire world.
2
I’m working on some new presentations that will have dramatic first slides:
“Nixon Lied”
“Saddam Hussein did not have WMDs”
“Bill Clinton did have sexual relations with that woman”
What? Everyone knows that? It’s not news any more? Rats!
1
The real "Nothingburger" is that Netanhayu is nothing but a proconsul in Vichy Israel acting as a border-fort for Vichy America --- which is nothing but the metropole of this nominal globally HQed disguised capitalist EMPIRE, merely 'posing' as, our formerly promising (and sometimes improving) 'perfection of democracy', of, by, and for the people "under consent of the governed".
1
Netanyahu is just another clown who keeps popping up in our politics to distort the truth and make mischief. His perfect foil is our own "idiot", Trump, the moron who agrees with the last person he speaks to. It's obvious we need to stay with the Iran deal whose
only purpose was to prevent them from using Nukes for ten yrs. We can renegotiate after that time or blow each other up. It makes no
sense to cancel the deal now so they can start up immediately. Trump hates this deal as it was an Obama achievement - He has no idea what goes into the efforts of diplomacy. So glad we are now living in a neo-fascist state - Trump - Pence - Horrors!
2
The real "Nothingburger" is that Netanyahu is nothing but a pseudo proconsul in 'Vichy Israel' acting as a virtual border-fort in the Middle East for 'Vichy America' --- which is nothing but the metropole of this nominal globally HQed disguised capitalist EMPIRE, merely 'posing' as, our formerly promising (and sometimes improving) 'perfection of democracy', of, by, and for the people "under consent of the governed".
1
“That the Trump administration has evidently colluded with Israel to influence Americans’ understanding of a major strategic issue fits an established, dispiriting pattern.”
Yes, a pattern! In 1953, on behalf of the U.K., the CIA successfully overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minster of Iran. They then put in a puppet ruler who abused the people. The average American has no idea of the damage the U.S. has done in the Middle East for oil and Israel.
Many in the U.S. believe politicians have been bought off or by the powerful State of Israel lobby for dollars, votes or both. The U.S has lost thousands of American lives, other countries hundreds of thousands, and the U.S. has spent trillions of dollars in the Middle East. Trump says $7 trillion! Why? Oil and Israel.
The U.S. is moving away from foreign oil. Israel is 70 years-old, highly educated, and prosperous. Israel must work to get along with its neighbors and not on the backs of U.S. taxpayers or with American lives.
We must find a way to hold self-interested and self-enriching Politicians and their staffers, from both parties, personally liable, responsible and accountable for the lies they have told US, their gross mismanagement of our county, our $21T and growing national debt (108% of GDP), and approximately 80T in future, unfunded liabilities jeopardizing our economic and national security, while benefiting themselves, their party, and special interest donors.
http://www.usdebtforum.com
1
Netanyahu spoke in English so as to best reach those in the US, UK, Germany etc. There are many in Israel who speak and understand English, not just the “elites” as you term it. English is taught in all public schools as well. He was clearly trying to get this info out to those outside of Israel who would not understand Hebrew. Why is this a problem for you? His English is excellent.
As for the point of this- he’s clearly trying to show that Iran lied and is still lying as to their nuclear capabilities and intent. Israel is right there in the cross-hairs. Why would you expect the leader of any country to not do all possible to protect it and its residents from harm? Is Israel supposed to just wait and be nuked?
Yes. A nothingburger, designed for an audience of one, calculated to be consumed alongside a Big Mac while watching Fox and Friends.
Let Israel fight its own wars.
Bibi is a big baby. He's wanted the US to attack Iran for 20 years. If he needs a war that bad he should use the billion$$$ and high tech military we've given Israel and do it himself. What a coward!
Hmmm...a former NSC director from Barack-Hussein's administration. No media bias here at all.
If the writer of this piece bothered to ask someone who understands Hebrew, he would have known that Netanyahu announced before switching to English that the importance of his news required that the agencies of government and the UN understood him and that’s why he chose English. Nothing “weird “ about it except an opinion writer who fails the most basic test of news. He did not get the facts.
2
I don’t trust Netanyahu at all and I am beginning to distrust Isreal. Maybe they shouldn’t have nuclear weapons either. Though I know the Christian Right is looking for the to start Armageddon. What a world where the US and Isreal just can’t be trusted anymore.
Yes, there is a pattern. In 1953, on behalf of our close ally the U.K., the CIA successfully overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minster of Iran for oil. They then put in a puppet ruler who abused the people, and here we are today! Now, another ally wants the U.S. to intervene in Iran for Israel. The average American has no idea of the damage the U.S. has done in the Middle East for oil and Israel.
Many in the U.S. believe politicians have been bought off or by the powerful State of Israel lobby for dollars, votes or both. The U.S has lost thousands of American lives, other countries hundreds of thousands, and the U.S. has spent trillions of dollars in the Middle East. Trump says $7 trillion! Why? Oil and Israel.
The U.S. is moving away from foreign oil. Israel is 70 years-old, highly educated, and prosperous. Israel must work to get along with its neighbors and not on the backs of U.S. taxpayers or with American lives.
We must find a way to hold self-interested and self-enriching Politicians and their staffers, from both parties, personally liable, responsible and accountable for the lies they have told US, their gross mismanagement of our county, our $21T and growing national debt (108% of GDP), and approximately 80T in future, unfunded liabilities jeopardizing our economic and national security, while benefiting themselves, their party, and special interest donors.
http://www.usdebtforum.com
1
What Netanyahu wants is American young men to go to war with the Iranians. Let the Israeli young men go fight Iran. Good luck with that.
1
Let's not forget that the "CIA" referred to here was it's special office set up in the White House and directed by Dick Cheney.
Israel much prefers it when we fight their wars for them, which exactly what this dog and pony show is about--getting the US to pay and bleed for them.
1
Colin Powell, Speech to UN on Iraq, WMDs, WAR.
Lies and deception to advance an agenda.
1
Does anyone reckon that the child in the Oval Office liked the slides, the pulling back of the curtain and the rest of the dog and pony show? Did he clap his handies and get the message?
Not a TED Talk, a Trump Talk. He took his lead from Trump in this bait and switch lecture and is attempting to lure in American voters. One wonders if Netanyahu was promised additional financial incentives by Trump, or his associates for producing this clown show.
Remember the Lavon Affair Operation Suzannah. Are the Israeli facing on their Northern Border a greater conventional military threat from Iranian forces building up in Syria, it appears so. Can Israeli forces defeat by themselves a Iranian military without U.S. as an Ally in the fight? The dog and pony show over a treaty was just that a false flag the more immediate threat is conventional and on the Northern border.
Just curious, what were the republican thoughts about the Iran Nuclear deal when Obama rammed it through?
How about, for a change, instead of having an opinion or op-ed article written by an Obama disciple, we get a more objective opinion. I seem to recall, at the time, the majority of the American people were not for this agreement.
But, then again, what does that matter to the NYT?
The moral weakling Netanyahu is to degenerate Trump Tweedledum and Tweedledee. They are both self-serving and corrupt, demagogues and both under investigation. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-netanyahu-corruption-explainer...
The only difference is that the Israeli police has already recommended that Bibi should be charged over alleged bribery cases, while Trump is trying to avoid the abyss of oblivion by scuttling Mueller's investigation.
War and mayhem would serve both nicely to distract people from maleficence that could land both in jail. Let hope the empty rhetoric will be exposed for what it is to avoid human blood bath.
4
I believe the Trump administration called this a “‘political agreement whose validity expired along with the Obama administration that negotiated it” because it was never ratified by Congress. In fact, it was an Obama administration deal. Trump is correct. And all the front end little snide personal comments against Netanyahu only reinforces the impression that this author will not be taken seriously on this matter.
Amazing what one finds in the trash of another country - obsolete trash at that. Had they found a small thumb drive containing fresh new data that would be something. But that is not what little Bibi displayed - obsolete ancient artifacts Mossad found rummaging in an Iranian dump. A real sophisticated breakthrough!
Given that little Bibi was talking to low IQ trump with his BIG button, he was counting on easily fooling our low IQ leader of our once great nation, who would not be able to differentiate current reality with ancient history. The ruse appears to have worked with the White House until they "corrected" the clerical error in their statement of support of little Bibi show and tell.
It's so outrageous that Israel's leadership is so determined to incite, instigate, inflame, provoke and bait us into a war of choice and arrogance with Iran! If they want a war with Iran, they can do so on their own, at their expense and that of their own people. No American lives or treasure are worth sacrificing for them - even if trump does get to keep the oil.
2
If only this “truthomercial” were on Fox. Then maybe Trump would have seen it.
A Colin Powell and Dick Cheney joint.
The regime which allowed Iran to go nuclear ("in ten years"_ has no business writing ridiculous opinion pieces to defend the bad deal. Steven Simon has no credibility.
2
Netanyahu succeeded in spite of his second mistake - he didn't deliver his message via Fox & Friends. But, Trump picked it up anyway. But, his first mistake is going to back fire on him - he provided no evidence that Iran is cheating on our nuclear deal and abrogating that deal will harm the U.S. with Iran and with North Korea.
Iran would resume development of nuclear weapons immediately and intelligence agencies of several countries, including Israel, have reported it would only take them months to develop enough fissionable material.
Kim Jong-Un is apparently willing to stop developing nuclear weapons in exchange for lifting of economic sanctions. If Trump breaks the deal with Iran by not lifting the sanctions as promised, why would Jong-Un enter into the same type of deal with Trump?
Netanyahu is again interfering with U.S. foreign policy to our detriment. If Trump uses this as a false pretext for abrogating the Iran deal, it will be at our expense.
12
From the tenor of Mr. Simon's article, it sounds as if he's be colluding with the Iranians.
1
And what did Jared Kushner think of Netanyahu's presentation? We already know that John Bolton thinks that belligerence and bombing are the best forms of diplomacy.
1
Putin does showy propaganda like this. Throws up scenes from a video game pretending it is an attack or coming up with an elaborate scenario where the CIA arranges bodies on a plane which it then shoots down to cover the fact that Russians shot down a civilian airplane full of innocent passengers including children. Trump has put reams of blank paper in towers to pretend they are volumes of regulations he has ended, or he has had an assistant buy steaks and things from a store and pretended it's a display of Trump branded items.
Yawn. This is amateur hour by dictators or putative dictators. Maybe Trump and Netanyahu can actually rev up their desired war this way but the only people fooled are their own biased followers. Stupid stuff to cause stupid wars to end real lives of far more value.
Great leaders don't act like con men. Vote them out.
Boy, that was a nothingburger. Western negotiators knew Iran was lying about their aims, hence, the agreement. The failure to point to any violations completely undermines Israel's argument.
1
We would be safer if Israel were a signatory to the 1968 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty and allowed for international inspection. Israel has a arsenal of nuclear weapons that could do with inspection.
Bibi understands American politics very well. It did not matter that what he said was untrue. It was only important that the untruths were said. Once said, they became reality.
Israel is the most militarily powerful country in the middle east. It has turned itself into an armed camp, walled itself in and gained the support of the US who protects it with its money and military. But there are limits to how much military might can offer long term security.
Israel has neighbors with whom it must live. Once upon a time it made a peace pact with Egypt that has served it well for the past almost fifty years. This pact has not been perfect, but it has held even when things seemed to be in complete turmoil.
The history of the Jews has often been tragic and painful for thousands of years. But even with tis Israel must work with its neighbors towards some sort of accommodation as it did with Egypt. It is a path full of risks and uncertainty, but so is living in an armed camp that offers only the possibility of more terror and endless war not only with Iran, but everyone that views Israel with suspicion. Please Mr. Netanyahu give diplomacy a try.
1
Supporters of the Obama administration’s concessionary nuclear deal with Iran — such as the New York Times and Steven Simon — are now predictably disparaging the significance of Israel’s proof (the authenticity of which they do not challenge) that Iran has consistently lied about its massive program to develop nuclear weapons.
Old news, they say. Everyone knew Iran was lying; that’s why we needed the agreement! The important thing is that Iran is now scrupulously complying with restrictions which, the Obama administration assured us, cut off any path to an Iranian bomb.
Of course, Iran didn’t comply with the agreement, which required that it make a clean breast of its previous nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency. But what is really rich in all this is that supporters of the deal have always responded to criticism of its sunset provisions by pointing out that the agreement commits Iran to never, ever, develop a nuclear weapon. They have asked us to take comfort from that commitment, and now tell us that Iran’s lies just don’t matter.
Iran has brazenly violated the JCPOA. Absent Iran’s prompt agreement to revisions of that accord along the lines outlined by President Trump, it’s time for sanctions (in President Obama’s oft-repeated phrase) to “snap back.”
1
Why are we listening to Netanyahu? What does the IAEA have to say about Iran's compliance with the JCPOA? IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano that Iran is in compliance with the JCPOA and that they had access to all sites and locations which they needed to visit. He further stated that " “Our inspection work has doubled since 2013. IAEA inspectors now spend 3,000 calendar days per year on the ground in Iran,” he said. “We have installed some 2,000 tamper-proof seals on nuclear material and equipment. We collect and analyse hundreds of thousands of images captured daily by our sophisticated surveillance cameras in Iran — about half of the total number of such images that we collect throughout the world.” Go to the IAEA and the JCPOA site for accurate information.
Netanyahu is not to be trusted since his objective is to embroil the US in another disastrous ME war by employing the same tactics of disinformation. He utilized the same methods in prior to the Iraq War.
The neo-cons led by Bolton and by Pompeo are on board as they were in 2002.This is the run up to Iraq War 2.0.
Haven't we seen this fiction once before at the U.N. with Colin Powell?
The program was shut down in 2003? It was never shut down.
1
The fact that he made the speech in English says it all.
Has Netanyahu joined FOX News ? ? ?
Was "he" playing to the same "Audience of One" ?
I must say, the reveal of the Black-Draped exhibits was very dramatic . . . and I'm sure Trump became aglow at all of the Sparkly digital media.
I do not think that anyone in the global intelligence communities was "something new" here.
Iran is a tricky and slippery actor for sure . . .
By Staying IN the Iran Nuclear Deal - IS our best choice for keeping an eye on Iran's Nuclear Program.
1
Netanyahu testified before Congress in 2002 guaranteeing that regime change in Iraq would bring stability in the Middle East. We are still involved in that war 16 years later.
Do not listen to Netanyahu on Iran. If the Israelis are convinced that Iran is developing nuclear weapons now, than the Netanyahu and his government should act unilaterally to stop it. Israel wants the US to do it's dirty work.
12
I don't know where Mr. Simon has been, but clearly not to Israel. Nearly everyone in that country speaks English, and if he is as careless with that fact as he is in analysis, maybe what he is telling us is that he is in charge of Iranian security.
That being said, the biggest problem I have with Bibi's presentation is that it merely continues the same trope he gave to the GOP Congress in 2015 making Israel support unnecessarily partisan; Netanyahu's military and intelligence leaders reportedly want the JCPOA to continue, and if the US were to unilaterally pull out, the remainder of the world stays in and no future rogue nation would ever trust entering an agreement with the US again.
None of this is claims that Iran is angelic or has good intentions--which they do not. But I have yet to see a good alternate to the JCPOA.
1
Don't Netanyahu's revelations here, if not already overtly known, confirm what we've believed to be the case with respect to Iran's nuclear practices for quite some time? Further, wasn't it these assumed practices that formed the whole rationale for putting a treaty in place that would enable the West to closely track Iranian nuclear ambitions, complete with the critical ability to get monitors on the ground? Undoing this treaty eliminates the ability we have to monitor Iran's activities and, in so doing, renders the situation materially more dangerous. This isn't North Korea or Libya. Trump needs advisors with this perspective but seems intent on proceeding in his own, less-informed, way.
1
A nothing burger with secret sauce, is what we have here. I don't know if I despise Trump or Netanyahu the most. Benjamin would sell his mother to get the U.S. to go to war against Iran and he's playing to Trumps baser instincts.
It's possible that Ben thought he was being sidelined by Trumps talks with N. Korea, and needed to do something to let Trump know Israel was still "important".
3
As is pointed out: "making the case" in the past turned out to be a pretense to go to war. A war that never ended. Where many people died and ISIS grew from the ashes. So if it didn't play out the way we wanted , by all means let's go for it again. And if Trump doesn't trust his own intelligence agencies. why does he trust the Israelis'? Trump thought what George Bush did was such a disaster that he is more than willing to repeat the "disaster" himself. It is no secret Israel wants to erase Iran from the map. So Trump is more that willing to join them in that effort. If you think that destroying another Arab country is the answer to the problem over there, you have not been paying attention. And you will be asking yourself where all the new refugees are going to go and where all the new terrorists are coming from? All sitting in sordid refugee camps stewing about who destroyed their country and plotting their revenge.
3
If Ehud Olmert, twice the strategist & diplomat compared to Netanyahu, served jail time over an infraction, then the present PM should have the penalty doubled when his reckoning comes.
Olmert is right on concerning the Iran nuclear deal & the necessity to abide by it. Too bad he has to wait years to reenter politics as he could engineer lasting peace with the Palestinians & allow for their statehood. Olmert- patriot & peacemaker.
3
A trip down memory lane. Bibi said Saddam had
WMDs and he guaranteed it.
Deja vu all over again.
Is IRan complying with the deal? Bibi says
makes,which is less than bubkes
2
Bibi and Donnie , cut from the same cloth . Blowhards resurrecting the boogeyman under the bed , both under investigation and let's not forget the big egos they possess . Guess he felt he could aim his big announcement at our congress since the Republicans have had him speak there before . The parallels are frightening , more so since both men are in a position to do great damage .
2
The war drums used for the Iraq war have been pulled out of storage and are once again calling us fight. Like last time the Israelis really want us to take out one of their enemies and the Trump administration is more than willing to play along. Except this time perhaps the American people can't be stampeded into supporting a new war. There was no 9/11 attack despite Trumps bombastic rhetoric about the threat of immigration and Muslims. We also still have the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to deal with. So Republicans in Congress, if you want a truly historic defeat in November. A defeat so large that you will be able to hold Republican caucus meetings in a closet. Go along with Trump and Netanyahu and start a shooting war with Iran. And for those of you who think Americans will send their children to die for a country led by the cynical and corrupt Netanyahu guess again. This will do more to isolate Israel than anything any Israeli enemy could do by themselves.
3
Thank you, Steven Simon, for laying out the facts after Benjamin Netanyahu’s breathless, made-for-TV announcement of what he tried to sell as new and startling revelations about Iran’s nuclear program.
Whether or not Mossad agents retrieved the papers and digital data from a dusty, unlocked warehouse is less important than the reality that everyone in the intelligence community in the United States already has possessed the information and analyzed it carefully.
History is filled with dishonest leaders whose thirst for war leads them to go to great lengths to create a fictional cause de guerre to justify attacking a neighboring country. Netanyahu did it on the cheap.
1
Netanyahu might be an ally, but he is no friend; make no mistake, his goal here is to manipulate the United States into another messy, woefully unaffordable, open-ended intervention in the region.
3
For a decade Netanyahu has been waving his cartoon bomb at the UN showing that Iran will have nukes in two months. If Bibi wants peace, and he doesn't, he would commence evacuation of Occupied Palestine.
2
Netanyahu likes to project for his audience the illusion that his actions are selfless and made only for the benefit of Israel, but it's fairly easy to see behind that smokescreen.
Bibi, mired in scandal and corruption like Trump, arguably hopes Trump will blow up the Iran deal for another more personal reason: destabilizing the Middle East benefits Netanyahu by energizing the conservative and ultra-conservative political factions in Israel while at the same time quieting more liberal voices.
2
Two world leaders, trying to stay out of jail and in office are liable to do anything.
And Arab leaders have never trusted Iran, a non-Arabic Farsi nation, but claims it should have “the Islamic bomb”.
Arabs have been angry all the way back to 1967, when Iranian military mobilized on the fifth day of the Six-Day War, helped radicalize Islam. And more recently warred with Arab neighbor Iraq.
2
When Mike Pompeo and Bibi Netanyahu are in cohoots with axes to grind for their religious and hegemonic constituencies, the truth is the victim.
Closely akin to "fake news" is "old news." But alarmism and Chicken Littleism work well, especially for those engaged in willful suspension of disbelief for nefarious purposes, be they lust for power, greed and/or ego fulfillment, all of which abound in this mess. And also especially in triggering a "leader" whose fragile ego and manifest fears are easily stoked by manipulators.
There will not be peace in the Middle East in this generation. The power and money are too good to resist.
1
This is a model Trump script: take something already known and present it as new revelation to further a political end. Never mind being truthful- deception is what works best. When one talks of "fake news" this presentation by the Israeli Prime Minister is a textbook example of it. And it appears that Mr Netanyahu also has a base who has an unhealthy appetite for faux red meat. (This meal was also prepared for American consumption as well.)
1
Netanyahu knows that Trump will fall for anything, and that neocons like Bolton will jump at the chance to attack Iran. After all, their attack on Iraq went so well...
2
The world is supposed to agree that Iran is very bad and the US/Israel are good, the white knight riding in to save the world. After watching the way Israel treats the Palestinian people and the way our own government treats people of color and immigrants I really can not decide who is good and who is bad.
3
History 101: US made Iraq attack Iran; as a bonus Iraq attacked Kuwait. That went too far, so US attacked Iraq and decimated it. In the parched lands Iran walked in and took over Iraq. That irritated Saudi Arabia and Israel who have now become friends and want Iran destroyed. As a first step Syria which is friends with Iran has been destroyed. Now Israel and SA are asking for Iran's head. US spends trillions on keeping peace amongst warring tribal nations of Middle East and China bankrolls the game.
2
But does anybody really think that Mr. Netanyahu publicized the really secret material?
I hope Mr. Simon does not.
People tend to let their feelings re Mr. Netanyahu effect their reactions.
Those of the Israeli intelligence community who actually got the material and interpret it, different ballgame.
Mr. Netanyahu has access to it all. PR stunts are one thing; security is another.
I trust Mr. Netanyahu on this, not Mr. Simon.
3
I do understand Mr. Simon's statement that he prefers to get the news from the US President rather from a foreign leader, it is natural. But what happens if the proof for this "nothing-burger" was found by a friendly country that is daily threaten with elimination by Iran and needs this "Nuclear Nothing-burger" to show the world, again, the real Iran. As a former director of the White House for Middle East and North Africa Mr. Simon should understand that what was shown on TV was just part of the material collected in Tehran. There is much more to be shown privately to governments. As to the Israeli Prime minister talking in English let me correct you Mr. Simone. Not only a small elite group in Israel speaks English, most Israelis do. The language was chosen because the speech was aimed to the world. You Mr. Simone was part of the advisory team that led the Obama Middle-East policies and look where it got us all. Little humility and modesty is required here!!
1
He took a page from the Trump playbook and tried to distract his domestic audience from the fact that he's close to being removed from office for shaking down campaign contributors. He's getting desperate.
2
The Mossad operation suggests to me that Israel had considerable cooperation from inside Iran to pull this daring stunt off. Presumably from ordinary Iranians willing to risk their lives to inform Mr. Netanyahu and his government about the dangers posed to them and the Middle East by its highly-interested-in-getting-hold-of-atomic-bombs mullahs. Mr. Simon makes no mention here of any secret information he is personally in receipt of concerning nuclear weapons development in Iran. All of his information comes to him second and third hand. I believe Mr. Netanyahu is a better friend to the people of Iran than Mr. Simon is, and this is why Iranians are willing to take extraordinary gambles with their lives to assist him.
2
Trump and Netanyahu share a trait. That trait is to use misinformation to divide and create doubt. Their fear of truth is another trait they share.
They both have disparaged the truth of M r. Obama and personally hate him because they have been exposed by him as lightweights.
4
Some NYT readers believe that Iran will sign a new deal once the current deal expires. Other readers do not understand how Mr. Trump could promise a deal with North Korea while simultaneously shredding "the same type of deal he is seeking with North Korea."
Second point first: the US is NOT / NOT seeking the "same type of deal" with NK that we signed with Iran. The Iran deal allows Iran to reconstitute its nuclear program at any time. Iran will do so at a time of its choosing; who knows when that will be. In the meantime, international trade and commerce is making Iran stronger. The operative point remains that Iran has the *option* of resuming its nuclear work.
Now to the first point: what assurances does the US and the rest of the civilized world have that Iran will sign a new agreement, or even agree to negotiate a new agreement? Correct, the answer is none. After a decade of integration into the global economy, we will have precious little leverage in the form of sanctions.
Please, please do not make the mistake in thinking that the leaders of NK and Iran are just like us. They are not.
I do not believe that either Iran or North Korea will give up their nuclear weapons research or capabilities. I wish Mr. Trump the best of luck in dealing with those two monstrous regimes.
2
I can see how this whole thing may benefit Netanyahu, but I'm not sure how any of this benefits Trump. This is the way in which you need to approach any decision that trump makes. He may bolster his standing with an evangelical community - that sees this as another step toward the rapture - but it probably isn't necessary to do so. Also, Anne Coulter and her followers would be railing against any resultant intervention. Russia falls on the side of the Iranians and Trump is supposedly compromised. The only thing I can think of is Trump's pathologic obsession with Obama and destroying everything that he did. This he perceives as victory, however irrational or pyrrhic.
8
Regarding "... a related Trump doctrine that Iran is in violation of the “spirit” of the agreement, even if it is abiding by the letter of the law."
It has been the U.S. that broke the spirit of the agreement the day it signed it. Iran curtailed its nuclear programme in return for a fraction of the money owed to it by the U.S., and the U.S. continued to blackmail friend a foe alike into boycotting Iran's economy through continuing banking sanctions.
The result has been a resurgence of power among Iran's hardliners who were on the defensive when Rouhani began to introduce solid social and political reforms.
We are seeing a repeat of 2003 when Cheney/Rumsfeld at al pulled the rug out from beneath President Khatemi's feet, leading to the hardline presidency of Ahmadinejad.
This is why so many Iranians believe in Conspiracy Theory.
16
By shredding JCPOA, Trump will be destroying the trust of all future foreign deals as governments will understand that treaties are only valid until that particular administration is in power.
JCPOA was meant to last 10 years and the goal was that better deals would follow, but thanks to this administration, all goodwill is lost. Makes one wonder what the North Koreans will be making of any pledge by this administration.
17
The column totally missed the point. Iran's policy is to lie about it's noclear program - including today.
The inspection regime is weak: no snap inspections and no free access to suspect sites.
Under those conditions, what good are the IAEA assurances that Iran is in compliance?
4
This is all to get oil prices above at least $80/bbl.
3
Simon's expertise and credibility is undermined by his statement that outside of the elite, fewer and fewer Israelis understand English. The identity of these elites is never defined, as well as his vague point about "fewer Israelis". Are the elites the members of the start-up nation, entrepreneurs, scientists,artists,philosophers or the average high school graduate who must demonstrate English proficiency on the required final exams? When I began to learn English in an Israeli elementary school I was taught that "fewer" is a numeric comparative that requires an antecedent.
I find it difficult to agree with most of Netanyahu's positions and tactics, but Simon's condescending and dismissive view of Israelis clearly renders him as biased and lacking any objectivity in his supposed analysis.
9
Eighteen Months ago, I had confidence in our president Obama and his secretary of state, John Jerry.
Things have changed. On the subject of "The Iran nuclear deal"
I now trust Hassan Rouhani more than our current president and his new secretary of state.
For me, this is a first.
19
When it comes to internal policies. I support most of president Obama’s policies, but I think he made a mistake pushing for a deal with Iran. The Israeli documents prove that Iran was looking for a weapon. Also prod that Iran has at least broken one clause of the deal. So the point of the author is moot. Iran has not comply with all its obligations, and if they have decircex in one way. Who says they are not deceiving in others. How can this deal be sustained while Iran lies and the money it takes from the West is used to prop Asad, silence its people and attacking its neighbors directly or through proxies.
About that clause:
Under clause T82.1 - which is not a sunset clause - in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran vows that it will not engage in “activities which could contribute to the development of a nuclear explosive device.” These include “designing, developing, acquiring, or using computer models to simulate nuclear explosive devices”. Iran retention of such models, and their relocation to keep them secret from inspectors it is a clear violation of the agreement and should lead if politics don’t play a role to the IAEA denying IRAN’s compliance with the agreement.
If Iran wants nuclear power for peaceful purposes, why is it keeping and hiding these files?
5
I think it’s a complete waste of time fighting over nuclear weapons. Russia, Pakistan, Turkey, North Korea and China aren’t exactly that stable in my opinion.
Also, the US is the only country to ever have used them. I’m sure when a group of people get multiple bombs dropped on them, they aren’t parsing which weapon is going to kill them.
Looking at Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, they already look like they were hit with a nuclear bomb.
A bigger threat to the US is actually us. I’m more frightened to see a movie and have to dodge automatic gunfire than of any nuclear bomb.
16
The intended audience for Netanyahu's "nothing burger" is obviously not Israeli voters, who are too well informed and sophisticated to be impressed by it.. The audience must be America's low-information voters. The purpose? To help Trump drum up support for a war on Iran, scheduled for 2020 in order to ensure Trump's re-election, and waged with only one willing partner, Israel.
30
Whoever is advising the Iranian leadership about their responsibilities in these agreements, has probably explained them via our bankruptcy laws.
You go out of business as ABC corporation and a week later you establish ABD corporation with the same ole cast and crew.
Iran is a theocracy, enables them to justify anything. While war is not the right answer, economic pressures surely, should be applied.
4
Collusion. Obviously, Trump and Netanyahu concocted this "new" evidence and put on that show, with White House tweets at the ready, to give Trump cover for shamefully breaking the word of the United States government, abandoning our European partners in the agreement, and creating chaos that could lead to war. The only unanswered question is "Why?" What do these two bullies hope to gain for themselves, politically or financially?
22
What to gain ? In war cowards can be heroes and distract the attention of their countries from their own banal corruptions
And where is Jared - ya know the “savior” who is “working” on mid-East peace? What’s his take on Bibi’s cover story for our know-nothing reality star president?
Is the author of this piece seriously claiming that Iran's retention of documentation, plans and data about such topics as nuclear warhead design is not a breach in principle, if not in fact, of the nuclear accord?
Does the Iran nuclear accord not state the following:
"Iran reaffirms that under no circumstances will Iran ever seek, develop or acquire any nuclear weapons."
What is the purpose of retaining nuclear weapons designs--just a benign academic study?
This ridiculous conclusion sums up the the author's inane reasoning: "One wonders how important the Iranians thought these documents were, given the slapdash approach they took to storing them."
6
This reminds me so much of "IRAQ has weapons of mass destruction" which justified invading Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction.
22
I wondered if I was the only one who thought Netanyahu’s announcement was reminiscent of Colin Powell’s coerced presentation at the United Nations. I actually like Powell but he definitely made a big mistake with his claims that time. Netanyahu just made the same big mistake, though without coercion.
18
I do oppose going to war with Iran, but the situation is different from the reports about WMD in Iraq. Iran is known to have had an active nuclear program with thousands of centrifuges. Clearly,Netanyahu was trying to influence Trump to change or cancel the Iran deal but there is no question that the Iranian rulers desire a nuclear weapons and I wouldn't be surprised if they cheated on the deal
2
I do not trust netanyahu and, by the way, what's happening with his legal problems? This smells so much like the 'Iraq evidence' that bush declared and Powell did at the UN that got us into an 'illegal' war. The so called evidence was later proven to to be untrue.
This IS a set up for diversion from trump's & netanyahu's political troubles. Hard liners want war and to drain economies and take the wealth for themselves-profiting from war.
What's about to happen in extremely troubling. The Middle East is so unstable now, this breaking of the Iran pact will cause irreversible damage to the world.
22
Years ago when this countries were getting together to iron this nuclear deal what gave me comfort was the quality of the USA representatives as well as Mr Zarif
the Iranian representative . If all this smart people working in conjunction to develop a deal very appropriately based on “distrust” have been unable to prevent Iran from further developing nuclear weapons
I am ñpessimistic a country exists with the ability to monitor North Korea’s nuclear program.
Is the USA reputation going to suffer by showing the world any agreements this country enters into is
subject to which political party takes control of the White House every 4-8 years ? My opinion is YES !
8
The goal of Netanyahu and Israel about making peace with its neighbors and obtain recognition by them to insure their survival. There is probably more evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons and this in itself destabilizes the region. At any rate it is a strong man that can use its power to get its way.
Iran of course has its own plans for getting what it wants as every state in the middle east does. Perhaps if Israel and Netanyahu spent more time and effort trying to be a good neighbor rather than intimidating others it may find the peace and security it says it desires.
Impossible you say? Perhaps, but without this mindset Israel and the Middle east will continue in its endless ruinous ways.
11
What is the point of all Mr. Netanyahu’s demonstration? Does he hope that the agreement will be abrogated, and sanctions reimposed? Wouldn’t that make Iran more rather than less dangerous? Is he planning to attack Iran in the future, thereby cutting Israel off from the entire Middle East? Wouldn’t other countries in the region be tempted to build nuclear weapons simply to protect themselves from Israel?
12
There is no question that Israel dragged the US into the Iraq war. They were convinced that Saddam had missiles with nerve gas warheads aimed at Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. I recall the TV news coverage showing young children in Israel totting gas masks to kindergarten. It was a compelling image. The UN investigators reported finding no weapons of mass destruction but the conventional wisdom at the time was that they were duped. Fast forward to today and a similar scenario seems to be playing out with Iran. The US has to be very cautious and we have to accept that although Israeli intelligence could be accurate, they have been wrong in the past.
26
We love war and undoubtedly will be fighting Iran soon. We will deal with the mess and consequences for the next 50 years, just like with Iraq. Thats what we do. The American public is not to bright. You voted for this president. so what do did you expect.
30
Netanyahu controls well over 100 armed nuclear devices and hydrogen bomb capabilities. Israel can wipe out Iran with a ten second phone call.
Iran has no such armament and could not win a war with Israel.
What is Bibi afraid of and what is he doing cowering before the American Congress ?
Bibi does not require any help in destroying Iran and is a powerful war lord in his own right.
16
I'm sure that Mr. Netanyahu is well aware that a nuclear bomb is a suicide bomb which explains why he desperately wants America involved and for the war to happen now. Some containment would be easier if Iran has only feeble conventional bombs with which to return fire.
reminded me of General Powell in his pitch to justify Iraq invasion.
17
It's quite simple, really. Netanyahu gives Trump a phony reason to pull out of the Iran deal and Trump gives Netanyahu permission to drag the United States into a war with Iran.
24
News and data both indicate the leader of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, complied with the nuclear agreement between his country and the united states along with other countries.
The only country doing its best to break the agreement is our own.
That makes this a sad day for me because i have come to trust Hassan Rouhani of Iran more than i trust my own president and the new secretary of state.
Forgive me for restating "This is a sad day for me" because i have now concluded that the two most likely countries to start a war with Iran are U.S.A. or Israel and both have the capacity for mass destruction.
Iran kept it's agreement as we are preparing to destroy it.
17
Netanyahu should have traveled to the US and made this presentation at the White House Correspondents Association dinner last Saturday. After all, wasn't the whole presentation full of comedy?
20
Netanyahu is speaking to an audience of one-and-many: Donald Trump and that supportive segment of the American people that's easily looped in by tabloid-quality "scoops".
Responsible messengers can discredit Netanyahu's performance in the eyes of everyone else, but never in the eyes of the intended audience. Especially the one: Donald Trump. He probably thinks he has been shown evidence that Iran is violating the nuclear deal. If he doesn't think so yet, he will in a day or two. Then he'll tweet it, and from then on his knowledge will be no more than knowledge of his own tweet.
In the infancy of the mass media, some people worried about the threat of mass hypnosis. Now the threat is the hypnosis of one crucial mind with a predisposition to get sleepy ... sleepy ....
6
I suspect that Trump's and Netanyahu's objection to the Iran deal has little to do with any alleged non-compliance. Both of these leaders seek regime change in Iran and are probably concerned that this Iranian deal will stabilize the current Iranian government thereby undermining the chances for regime change. But if this is the point, at least say it.
15
The article presents Mr. Netanyahu as a crackpot, trying rather hard to connect with the lunatic segment of Americans.
Rather unfair, I should think.
Mr. N is trying to rile up the right wing hysteria machine in the US. He is trying to connect emotionally with half of American voters who are ethnic and religious nationalists (no longer a lunatic fringe, but a lunatic half). While they are enacting a nihilistic agenda right here in the US, their volatile mix of religion and race based hatreds are not necessarily good for Israel - unless they are properly messaged and managed. They hate Muslims, but also all non-Christians. The anti-Semitic strains of ethnic nationalists can surge and and hurt Israel's interests unless Natenyahu manages the situation. He is throwing red meat, in a familiar language, to our moral majority, AM radio, churches, Fox, right wing think tanks, conspiracy theorists, a fairly diverse groups of other crackpots who vote, and deep pockets. Red meat: bad bad Iran. He knows no one will look any further, or understand the nuances of the situation.
To that end, he is likely succeeding. Watch the 'bad bad Iran' ricochet in the echo chamber, and produce movement in Israel's favor.
And when evidence of Netanyahu's success emerges, I hope Mr. Simon will write a glowing tribute to the man; because that is what Mr. Netanyahu will deserve.
You go, Bibi!
3
I saw Netanyahu speaking on stage, it was reminiscent the selling of the Iraq war with charts and all sorts of unsubstantiated documentation. Gave me a chill.
23
"And it is in compliance, then however much its leaders might lust in their hearts for nuclear weapons, the fact remains that they are not making them."
Pointing this out with no irony intended, you're missing an 'if' after the first word in this sentence.
2
Benjamin Netanyahu seems relevant only to or rather only Republican America. How much more insults and lies are heaped upon us that we call his bluff over Iran. Even Israelis are finding him arrogant, corrupt, irrelevant taking Israel in a direction totally against it's founding principles. Netanyahu's wish is our command - no matter how ludicrous! This Israeli relationship is costing America a lot. We are losing our unbiased leadership in the world. Our dichotomy over Israel will be our undoing. Overlooking Israel's crimes like genocide, land grab and their unquestionable right to be nuclear, is in stark contrast to what we demand from the rest of the world. Yes, Iran seems ( seems being the operative word ) a threat and therefore Netanyahu creates non-existent documents, drama or war rhetoric. He did it be trying to derail the Iranian Deal although the result helped Israel's safety.Whenever his popularity dives in his country, he tries to deflect attention from his charges of corruption. That we are party to Netanyahu's schadenfreude is what sickens me as an American. And the fact that my tax dollars go to enriching a rich country, especially one which commits genocide. And please. Quit this whine about Israel's safety. They have the capacity to blow the entire Middle and beyond. East.Israel is itching for a fight with Iran. Period. As a matter of fact hawkish Netanyahu Israel has already preemptively struck - bombing North Syria!
14
Here's at least a portion of the truth.
Netanyahu said ~10 years ago that Iran is one year away from a nuclear weapon. He actually said basically the same thing many times from mid 90s through 2014.
Now Netanyahu and others against the Iran agreement say "but Iran could start building nuclear weapons in 10 years."
His own words show the tremendous improvement the agreement has brought.
Will the U.S. be suckered into attacking Iran? I want no part of it when we have an Israeli leader lying to American people.
20
Is Mr Netanyahu attempting to influence Congress? Or is he simply giving it cover for what it intended to do anyway?
7
Netanyahu is no more credible than Trump. Both liars, both failures and both overly in I love with themselves. Posers the pair of them. Disgraces to both their countries.
18
Another reliable Netanyahu-hater providing commentary to the Times op-ed page. Full of innuendo, untruths, and a suggestion that "there's nothing there"--from someone who quite obviously doesn't know what is there.
First: Israelis speak English. They learn in school, at an early age; they travel extensively, and often to places where no one knows Hebrew.
Second: No one would give such a talk to Israelis alone, who already are aware that the Iranians are not to be trusted. So you criticize Netanyahu for attempting to inform the outside world?
The "nothingburger" is, essentially, that the negotiators have told themselves they did the best they could, and now a bad agreement for which there is no "evidence" that it is failing (is that because the IAEA doesn't get to go any place except where the Iranians let them go?) is the same as a good agreement. Even worse, treating the Iranians as if they couldn't be trusted might make them unhappy. Heaven forfend!
The question is not whether the Iranians are meeting our most minimal expectations--the BBC today reported that this was a nothingburger because every one knows that the Iranians were lying about the nuclear program, and everyone agreed not to embarass them--but whether the minimal expectations are sufficient to rescue this from being just bad. Defending it by suggesting that any agreement is better than no agreement, and therefore we should accept what Iran offers willingly, is, well, stupid.
14
The IAEA, which is tasked with the Iran inspections, claims it has the right to inspect ANY site in Iran, including military installations. Iran says it does not have the right to inspect military bases.
The IAEA says that it has no reason to believe Iran may be breaking the deal, so therefore has no reason to inspect the bases at this time.
The US government has requested the IAEA to inspect military bases but the IAEA says that the USA hasn't provided evidence suggesting illegal activity by Iran, and therefore a need to inspect the bases.
The IAEA has not conducted ANY inspections in Iran since 2015.
Does anybody see a problem here?
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-nuclear-inspections-idUSKCN1BB1JC
9
>>> "The IAEA has not conducted ANY inspections in Iran since 2015."
That is simply not true.
The IAEA conducts ongoing monitoring and verification, as it has *since* 2015, as is required by UNSCR 2231.
The IAEA director general prepares quarterly reports for the board of governors and those reports are subsequently made public. The most recent is dated February 2018 and was released to the public last month. You can find it here:
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/18/03/gov-2018-7-derestricted.pdf
10
Douglas - Thanks for the interesting link directly to the IAEA. I appreciate links to primary sources. However, in this case, I think I was right. The IAEA relies on Iran to report. It does not actually go into Iran and do site inspections as a part of its regular monitoring procedure. The information in the report you linked to was provided BY Iran, not determined by IAEA inspectors on the ground.
The IAEA has the right to inspect but will only do so if specifically asked and if evidence is presented making it necessary. From my link above I quote:
"The IAEA has not visited an Iranian military facility since the agreement was implemented because it has had “no reason to ask” for access, the second agency official said."
Also read the following several paragraphs.
In short, the IAEA has not sent inspectors into Iran and will not do so unless a specific protocol of votes is followed. Regular site inspections are NOT part of its process.
1
Some would simply call it fake news or a lie
First Trump colluded with Russia and now with Israel to influence Americans. Oh my. So when the Clinton campaign paid a high ranking ex-MI6 operative, Christopher Steele, to influence the last election (and Steele clearly had closer ties to the intelligence community of a foreign nation than Natalia Veselnitskaya had to Russia's), they were colluding with a foreign government to influence the US election?
5
The Steele dossier was initially requested by a conservative group paid by a supporter of Senator Rubio, as part of opposition research. After Trump won the nomination the material was then offered naturally to the Clinton campaign. Mr. Steele also was not part of any government organization when he complied the dossier So the suggestion of collusion is totally misplaced.
7
The author of this article misses the whole point of Netanyahu's presentation, producing more anti-Israel nonsense typical of the NY Times opinion section, which is to be expected of those who are so emotionally invested in Obama's "legacy". The basic premises of the deal required in writing from its beginning is that Iran would be completely forthcoming in ALL details as to what it's past nuclear weapons program entailed. This was vital so the IAEA had a specific unambiguous benchmark with which to measure the degree of compliance the mullah theocracy in Tehran was actually fulfilling.
In reality, the IAEA only examined no more than 1000 pages of documents provided them by the mullah regime. Compare that to the hundreds of thousands of documents Israel now has in its hands, and which for a nothing burger the various Western intelligence agencies seem to be quite eager to examine. Furthermore, in the overwhelming desire to cut a deal with the mullahs for varying motives among the P5+1 side economic and political, they never demanded of the mullahs or enforced that very provision Iran would become fully clean so that the IAEA could do its work without any lingering doubts. If they had, the P5+1 would have already have had all this material in their possession.
What Israel has just shown the world is that not only were the mullahs bald-faced liars -- even claiming a nuclear weapon would violate their Shiite faith, but that the whole foundation of the deal is corrupted.
14
What information is NOT being reported?
This article sums up the situation, up to 2015 very well. I've read reports from other news sites, BBC, Daily Mail, ... that all seem to match.
But WHAT is on those 55,000 pages and 183 CDs?
Have journalists at the NY Times or elsewhere been given access to those documents?
How do we know whether they do or don't contain information relating to Iran's activities, post-2015?
None of the news reports I've read actually reveal the information on those documents.
4
Steven Simon: "was the National Security Council’s senior director for the Middle East and North Africa from 2011 to 2012."
He is giving the context in which Netanyahu's remarks should be received. He knows a heck of a lot more than you or I do, most of which he can't share with either of us. You can reject, or ignore, the information he does provide but remember this, you don't have any direct experience in this field. That should humble you just a bit. Remember, only trump knows everything there is about everything.
8
>>> "How do we know whether they do or don't contain information relating to Iran's activities, post-2015?"
I think that, if they contained alarming post-2015 information, Netanyahu would have been eager to tell us, rather than breathlessly rehashing old news.
Also, it seems reasonable to expect that, if the documents contained material suggesting some nefarious recent activities by the Iranians, they wouldn't have been left in an (evidently) unlocked and unguarded warehouse.
6
I asked 3 main questions. (4 actually, but the first is somewhat rhetorical.) I would love answers to those questions because they seem highly relevant.
I look to journalists and experts such as Steven Simon for those answers. Unfortunately the answers don't seem to be forthcoming on ANY of the major news sources I can find at the moment.
I know I'm just a nobody. That's why I don't pretend to have the answers. However, though a nobody, I think I have a right to ask questions, even challenging ones.
Hypocrisy seems to be the order of the day.
Netanyahu's Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons of mass destruction on bombers and missiles, aimed straight at Iran. It never has admitted to the introduction of those weapons into the Middle East.
So to say Iran is lying and doing something wrong, logically, means that Israel is far more guilty of lying. Iran has the right to self defense, and all I can do is ask Americans...what would you do if, oh say Cuba, all of a sudden had nuclear weapons aimed at Washington?
We all know what did happen, Kennedy risked nuclear war to stop that.
Hugh
14
Netanyahu's relationship with the truth is on a par with Trump's. Need I say more?
22
Which one will end up in prison first? Conversely, which one will start a war in an attempt to remain in power first?
1
Bolton Pompeo and now Netanyahu
Can you hear the drumbeats of war?
Are we really that stupid to fall for the wmd scam again?
17
Mr. Simon: Do you expect us to believe that if the Iranian nuclear documents that Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed this week had been revealed at the time the nuclear agreement with Iran was being considered, that agreement would still have been approved in its present form? Come on, get real. The only nothingburger I see here is your column.
12
At the time the JCPOA was signed, all of the parties, along with intelligence agencies throughout the West, were fully aware that Iran had previously had a nuclear weapons program, and had subsequently abandoned it.
Netanyahu's "revelations" aren't new now and were not new then. They are irrelevant to the agreement.
10
Yes jay. Nothing has changed
Are Iranian installations in Syria considered nothingburgers? I suppose Steven Simon Says thinks the drone Israel shot down recently, equipped with explosives, is also pure fabrication.
Mr. Simon says nothing about how the Iranians are using their newfound billions to advance their agenda in Syria, etc. and recently in Morocco, too. Yes, read that story.
Look, it's obvious many readers here, and probably the editorial board, not only distrust Netanyahu, but his entire cabinet, intelligence agencies, its army, and most of its people, too. They, nor anyone else who isn't being briefed on the info. NOT revealed on Fox News, etc., cannot vouch for what else Israel knows. Be sure that the NYT and a host of other liberal media outlets will be dissing Israel this coming Friday again. Want to see good videos of what some Palestinians are really doing at the Gaza fence, and not just on Friday? They are out there, but never in this paper.
11
I have no respect for Trump or Netanyahu as people and disagree with most of their policy ideas.
But that doesn't make Iran my friend. My enemy's enemy is NOT necessarily my friend.
IF Iran is up to no good, and someone has proof of it, then I don't care if the messenger carrying that proof is Netanyahu or the Tooth Fairy. The world needs to pay attention.
22
getting shot at the fence has been the activity most witnesses report.
3
No one has produced that proof.
3
Good article by Mr. Simon, but one very strange comment: "Outside the elite, fewer and fewer people in Israel speak English..." I've been to Israel 32 times from 1973 to the present and can say with all candor that English is far more widely spoken than ever before. That said, the presentation was for an audience of one and he is not an Israeli.
6
Netanyahu and his followers, continue to damage their cause, Israel and Jews around the world by presenting misleading information to Trump-Pence, the most ignorant and arrogant team to hold executive office.
10
This article evades the truth, which is that Iran is continuing portions of their nuclear program. In fact, the IAEA has stated that Iran will not let the IAEA inspect the Parchin site where the nuclear compression tests have been held and may still continue. Iran continues to produce excess heavy water. They continue to create more rapid centrifuges for U235 purification. Senior Irananian Salehi recently stated that they can produce adequate enriched U235 within 48 hours, and they can re-start the plutonium reactor by changing the pipes that they had filled with concrete temporarily. A permanent shutdown of their program is needed.
7
Why is Mr. Netanyahu so intent on destroying Israel?
8
1996, Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress where he darkly warned, “If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, this could presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind,” adding that, “the deadline for attaining this goal is getting extremely close.”
Testifying again in front of Congress in 2002, Netanyahu claimed that Iraq’s nonexistent nuclear program was in fact so advanced that the country was now operating “centrifuges the size of washing machines.”
Netanyahu said in 2002, "If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region."
Why would anyone listen to Mr. Netanyahu?
11
Bebi is giving Trump a push and cover to pull the US out of the Iran deal. Little things like facts never matter to Trump; apparently massaging them is also fine with Bebi.
10
Netanyahu would like nothing more than for Iran to look like Syria and Iraq today. He does not want Iran to be a functioning nation
13
In many circles it is thought that Israel has nuclear weapons.
I would ask any and all Times reporters and opinion writers this question: "Does Israel possess nuclear weapons?"
If so, Iran's nuclear policy, whatever it might be. could be considered no more morally offensive than Israel's, nor that of the United States for that matter nor any of the other umpteen nuclear weapons nations.
Does Israel possess nuclear weapons?
20
Thank you for this cogent article
7
Netanyahu has intertwined Israel not to the United States, but specifically to the Republican Party. Are Israeli voters fully aware of the damage that entails to a long-term relationship? Apparently not.
By bonding with a neo-fascist regime in the United States, Netanyahu soils Israel's status with the majority of Americans who will be less willing in the future to continue extravagant financial assistance. Not a smart move...
20
Agreed.
Between Netanyahu testifying to Congress in 2002 that Saddam Hussein had centrifuges the size of washing machines and the continued settlements and Palestinian refugees not be able to return to their homeland, I am much less sympathetic to Israel than in the past.
11
Given the Times long and lamentable history of antagonism toward Mr. Netanyahu, I can understand its reluctance to begin a new feature of the paper henceforth to be known as “Apologies, Regrets and Mea Culpas Owed To Mr. Netanyahu By Our Newspaper” lest it become top-heavy with acknowledgments of the paper’s sorry treatment of him.
That said, now would be a fitting time to do so because it would come at a time when there is growing agreement between Congressional Democrats and Republicans that the U.S. was bady suckered on the Iran deal and that U.S. allies in the Middle East and the people of Iran are paying a very significant price for it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/world/middleeast/iran-syria-israel.ht...
8
1996, Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress where he darkly warned, “If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, this could presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind,” adding that, “the deadline for attaining this goal is getting extremely close.”
Testifying again in front of Congress in 2002, Netanyahu claimed that Iraq’s nonexistent nuclear program was in fact so advanced that the country was now operating “centrifuges the size of washing machines.”
Netanyahu said in 2002, "If you take out Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region."
Why would anyone listen to Mr. Netanyahu?
6
I heard an Israeli comment on a radio program that the whole thing was a little embarrassing. I would agree. Show and tell but nothing new. Does he have nothing else to do?
9
Why is Israel not getting the same treatment as the DPRK for their own WMD programs??? They are the country that is actually attacking their neighbors, has developed nuclear and chemical weapons and violated numerous UN resolutions. A trade embargo and naval blockade should be imposed until they give up their WMDs and start obeying international law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
15
This morning on the talk shows, as they attempted to play down the Israeli revelations, one host suggested we can't back out of the deal now because "we already gave them the money". It sort of sums up the idiocy with which the deal was concocted. Its funny how Democrats hate Russians, but they love lying, "Death to America" Iranians. Bizarre.
What did the Iranians promise Obama to get their deal and sanctions relief? That they would tell the truth? They obviously didn't promise to quit sowing terror in the Mid-east or working on ballistic missiles.
The Democrat argument for the deal now is "well, we already gave them all the sanctions relief and cash, so what's left is better than nothing". That about sums up the Obama Presidency - "Better than Nothing".
5
Netanyahu turns out to be competing with Trump in hucksterism, a charlatan trying to inject some relevancy for self-protection, as he is being investigated for fraud. Iran's nuclear deal, as it stands, is the best way to keep tabs on Iran's ambitions.I bet that Trump never even touched the documents, let alone read them. Our vulgar ignoramus is pretentious, abusive and impulsive, and a racist attitude in trying to erase Obama's towering achievement. The European courage in opposing this 'bull in a china shop' is commendable. Have we ever seen such an ugly brute, trying to destroy a signed agreement without consulting with his allies?
13
Israel is opening this document trove to the intelligence services of the USA, France, Russia, the UK, and Germany. One would think that if were faked, one of those services would figure it out, no? And that would be the end of Israeli credibility on anything, no? Israel won't do that. This is no Protocols. The documents are real. What the world decides to do about them is another matter entirely, but I want to read the story of how the hell the Mossad got them out of Iran...and whose heads are now rolling in the Persian capital.
5
Good essay until the xenophobic last line. With Trump in the White House wouldn’t just about any foreign leader would be more believable than America’s!
2
Bebe and Donny as a tag team.......what a show it will be. I have no objection to Israels anxiety about Iran it is more than justified and their wariness about the Iran deal is predictable. I have great objection to Trumps handling of that deal solely for his own personal political objective. The combination of Trumps ignorance and narcissistic approach and his use of Netanyahu as a public lobbyist seems a disaster in wait for the middle east, Israel in particular, and for ourselves.
7
'Fewer and fewer Israelis speak English' ? Seriously? You could not be more wrong. I wonder what else you are wrong about.
4
Curious. I do business on occasion with Israelis, in Israel (by phone and email – never visited). I probably know hundreds of Israelis and every conversation we’ve ever had was in English. If fewer and fewer Israelis speak English, then they’re unlike just about every other developed society on Earth: English is in process of conquering the world as THE lingua franca. I suspect the assertion.
Then, the author argues at least partly at cross-purposes. If the Iranians looked on as Iraq was destroyed, why did they then resolve to re-boot a nuclear program that no longer was needed for defense against a foe that had decimated them for years? Could it be that we just take their word for it, and accept that it was to destroy Israel and establish itself as dominant in the region against Sunni foes? Are those aims NOT relevant to the discussion?
Is the author DEFENDING Iran, almost universally accepted as the primary exporter of terrorism in the world?! If so, with what motives? Or is he simply seeking to demonize Netanyahu, a favored focus of energy on the left lately?
Why would the Iranians have a problem putting their nuclear program on a shelf for a few years (not, perhaps, the full ten), when they had no proven rockets to deliver them? They soon will, and you can bet, ten years or not, that the nuclear program will be re-booted then to marry the two. It’s also no longer ten years, it’s seven, and what happens after that even if they DO comply with the agreement?
7
The truth is that Iran, if pressed hard ENOUGH, might have given up much more to have the bulk of the sanctions lifted, able to sell their oil openly, and try to repair a disintegrating economy. Iran sold a $500 Persian carpet to Barack Obama and John Kerry for $10 million – some of the other signatories were strong-armed into not laughing publicly at how BAD a deal had been cut. And the crime is that THEY came to US to dicker on how they could get out from under sanctions. Trump certainly wouldn’t make THAT bush-league mistake.
Why should ANYONE defend or even believe a regional power that muscled an overpriced and dreadful deal by implicitly threatening that without it Israel might see rockets soon bearing nuclear warheads?
Netanyahu, who may have given other information to the U.S. that can’t be shared, nevertheless was less effective using the information he DID share than he might have been. He should have used the arguments I did in this comment and ask to what lengths will some in the West go to legitimize a bad deal that SO disproportionately benefited a VERY bad actor?
5
Bebe should have worn his MAGA cap, what an embarrassing show he put on. I’ve lost all respect I once had for him.
9
Is Israel like America, in the sense that their putative democracy has brought them an executive regime that is utterly repugnant to two thirds of them? Seriously, I'm asking. Because I get mixed messages on this, and it's unclear to me how a civilized person could regard Netanyahu as anything other than, well, what he obviously is. You know, like in America.
10
I'm amused that Netanyahu is shocked, shocked that the Iranians would squirrel away the knowledge they spent years acquiring. Any country would -- all countries keep military secrets. Should they have executed their nuclear scientists and engineers along with destroying all their records? And if complete transparency and honesyt is the standard for Iran, it should be for all countries, including Israel, which has never disclosed the existence of its own nuclear program. The fact is that the international community has better inspection rights in Iran than in Israel.
9
This sarcastic article is consistent with the head in the sand attitude of liberals towards Iran. By the way, The author, if he's ever been to Israel, would know that many people here have a passable knowledge of English and not just the elite that he so enjoys denigrating. American and European leftists do not feel threatened by the constant threat by the Ayatollah's regime of annihilating Israel. Why should they? These are the same chorus of leftist liberals who ignored Hitler in the 30's and happily supported Stalin's murderous regime. We Jews have learned in our long history not to ignore existential threats and certainly not to trust deceitful, mendacious regimes. These documents demonstrate that Iran intended to build a bomb, arm its missiles with the bomb, and will at the slightest opportunity continue to pursue this aim. What good is a deal that merely postpones for a number of years the Iran nuclear threat? Not at all to Israel. However, the left has a long history of happily kicking the can down the road to pursue an illusory peace with deadly regimes.
9
Netanyahu's ridiculous stunt is a massive exercise in hypocrisy and chicanery.
Not mentioned anywhere are the facts that:
1. Iran is signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which prevents it from actively developing nuclear weapons.
2. Israel is NOT a signatory to the NPT, and has an estimated 250 active nuclear weapons, which they hide from the world.
3. Iran has scrupulously adhered to the JCPOA, but the United States has already failed to abide by the agreement.
4. The United States is also in violation of the NPT, which requires signatories who possessed nuclear weapons before the Treaty went into effect to decrease their nuclear arsenals.
So who is lying? Who is hiding their motives? Who is in violation of international agreements? Who is more likely to threaten world peace with weapons they already possess?
It isn't Iran.
We went through this with the Bush Administration lies about Iraq. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us.
Americans. Please don't be fooled twice. Netanyahu and Trump are leading us into war if they can. We will be very sorry if we fail to pay attention to their nefarious plans.
26
Sounds like the same ugly playbook. He has no ideas or solutions, just division, hate and corruption. Can he just go away forever?
9
Mr. Simon didn't note "that the Iranians had falsified their declarations to the I.A.E.A. in late 2015, by denying they had ever planned to build a weapon" (quote from the NYT's own report nytimes.com/2018/04/30/world/middleeast/israel-iran-nuclear-netanyahu.html) as the Iranian documents obtained by Israel demonstrate for the first time.
Had Iran been truthful in its 2015 I.A.E.A. declarations, the JCPOA would not have come in force. That's the bottom line of Benjamin Natanyahu's presentation.
5
Benjamin Netanyahu is exactly like that shifty, lying drinker in a bar who goads somebody else into fighting a common enemy while he offers to hold his patsy's coat.
The trouble is Donald Trump is stupid enough, and vain enough, and corrupt enough to do Netanyahu's bidding.
In the race for worst leader of a democracy, Trump wins by a hair(piece).
16
It looks like were in another Middle East (undeclared) war.
The Trump Administration along with Britain, France and Israel are in full out deception mode.
The first casualty of war is the truth.
7
Netanyahu understands perfectly well how this works because he is very comfortable operating the way Trump operates. Make a lot of noise about nothing and it doesn't matter, all the right-wing media will amplify it and go along with the charade to provide cover, then do whatever all the noise is supposed to indicate we must urgently do. Invade Iraq, shut down Planned Parenthood, deny desperate asylum seekers entry, run a dozen Congressional investigations into Benghazi, you name it, all in the name of protecting us from urgent threats and the most menacing malfeasance. Never mind that it's all made-up hype. Trump and Netanyahu don't even need to exchange winks. Trump knows this routine perfectly well, and so does his whole coterie and his whole party.
Gotta run, I hear ICE is rounding up a couple of 50-somethings who have lived on this street for decades and throwing them out, leaving their teenage kids to fend for themselves. Trump and FOX just explained that they're all probably MS-13, just like those fake asylum seekers. Who's got the bigger nothingburger?
11
Mr. Netanyahu is using a page out of the Geowrge W. Bush playbook about non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" in an effort to con the US into a reprise of the war in Iraq, this time with Iran.
He and Trump are two peas in a pod
17
What's he up to?
Defending his country and saving Israel and the Jewish people from attack.
That's what he is doing!
6
Think about building fall-out shelters, but without Trump's log.
Netanyahu has resorted to pure hucksterism to try to convince Trump to crash the nuclear agreement. A state leader should be above such behavior but now has slipped into the same trash bin as the man of 3001 lies.
It is time for the Israeli government to remove Bibi before he contrives with Trump to bring Israel into a real shooting war-on Israeli territory. His pending indictment should be hurried along to put the brakes on a headlong rush to encourage Trump. What Trump wants to do about Iran is not in the best interests of Israel.
It is a terrible conundrum for the world when a real catastrophe may occur simply because an American president is trying to undo everything bearing the Obama imprint. The actions of Trump and Bibi about the Iranian nuclear deal is how wars start. We can hope the other participating countries can exert pressure and stay in the deal, while showing Trump strong international support for the original deal and for Iran's continued monitoring.
10
Just more meddling in US politics, hoping we will be dragged into a war for Israel.
15
He was just seeing if could fool "the useful idiot' or his useful staff.
7
The only thing missing was a demonstration of the proprs of tubes carrying yellowcake leftover from Collin Powell's 2003 show + tell farce at the UN.
12
Crikey, Mr. Simon, is this - Bibi Netanyahu's "Nuclear Nothingburger" - hooey or what?
How can the Donald promise a deal with North Korea while simultaneously shredding the same type of deal he is seeking with North Korea? The Iran nuclear deal was a monumental feat of diplomacy with the United Nations as the vehicle for assurances on both sides. The hubris of Trump to think he can go it alone or manipulate the world stage is sickening.
165
He is just trying to manipulate US foreign policy through his ally in the WH, who doesn't care what's old news and what isn't, as long as it fits his prejudices. Concrete, beware of foreign policy made in Israel (or Saudi Arabia for that matter).
10
Spell check strikes again. Congress, not concrete.
3
Netanyahu. Trump. Birds of a feather flock together.
15
"Outside the elite, fewer and fewer people in Israel speak English" Have you been to Israel??? See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Israel#English "Israelis born from the 1980s onwards generally have better English language skills than their parents and grandparents"
10
Hummm: Bibi knows that Donald is not terribly bright. He, Bibi, knows also that Donald responds viscerally, and to what he hears on Fox and Friends. So, no matter how stale the news, Bibi figures it will play directly into Trump's morning TV diet, and his desire to kill the Iran deal. Why now? Macron and Merkel (the M&Ms) have just presented their case for staying in. Bibi understands that it's not policy that is made, but jumping at the bait. Crude, but there you have it.
19
". . .I’d prefer not to hear it from a foreign leader."
As Mr. Simon must know better than most, the United States has not only heard from but has largely followed the guidance followed the guidance of Israeli leaders for a very long time, with respect to our Middle East policy. This is so thoroughly true that Israel's (perceived) national interest has been endlessly conflated with our own.
As for Bibi's goofy performance, yesterday, it seems entirely obvious that he hopes that Trump is so ignorant of even the most recent history that he will believe that some new and damning intelligence has come to light. He could be correct.
9
Nothingburger. Well said.
You are talking about Netanyahoo who has based on Israel's entire existence on a series of lies. Each time an article critical of Israel's policies shows up in NYTimes, they deploy their comment bots disguised as Americans.
Israeli's invented this social media propaganda to manipulate Americans. Russians just copied it.
No congressional investigation here. Even though Netanyahoo is trying again to get us into another war.
Remember the cartoon of a christmas ornament with a fuse he showed up with the last time at the UN.
If he wasn't the head of a colonial enterprise with nukes and war on his mind, he would be a joke.
20
Netanyahu's sins and corruption will bring the wrath of GOD onto the Israeli people.
18
I doubt if one congress person even raises the possibility that Netanyahu is less than 100% credible. We might recall how he came to our congress to attack our president and received nothing but standing ovations. Walk down the street in Tel Aviv and you can't swing a dead cat and not hit someone who thinks he is a total liar...but here he is King Bibi.
24
Please do not pin the "slam sunk" comment on our intelligence community. That sales job, in direct defiance of normal intel's conservative presentation; i.e. "high degree of confidence", etc, was by Bush administration officials, who were hell bent on going to war. Can we ever live down Mr. Powell's disastrous U.N. appearance, where not one of the 17 citations he made turned out to be true? We must never forget how that administration misused intelligence to race into war, for reasons that have never been fully explained, that we never repeat that error.
11
Pretty obvious last minute propaganda ploy by Israel. Trump is easy prey, as was W.
18
Talk about a "deep state."
Trump incessantly colludes with his crony crooks, fellow fascists and Russian propagandists to entrance his Branch Donaldians with their daily doses of Alternative Facts.
They are in a deep state of delusion and denial.
10
With his shameless warmongering and his oversight of Palestinian assassinations, Netanyahu has turned Israel into our greatest national security threat. We should be concerned that his bizarre and violent behavior is he is stimulating anti-Semitism on a global level. Are their no Israelis sane and powerful enough to steer their nation away from hopeless violence and endless war with its neighbors?
25
The author is so desperate to belittle and demean Mr. Netanyahu that he misses the point of the latter's presentation, which was to show the world -- which does NOT / NOT understand the fine print of the Iran nuclear agreement -- that Iran is fully capable of resuming its program once the provisions of the JCPOA expire in several years.
THAT is why the JCPOA is an abject failure: because the Iranians can pick up where they left off.
Sure, Netanyahu's presentation was borderline amateurish. That's because it was not intended for sophisticated analysts such as Mr. Simon.
Iran should never / never be allowed in a billion years to produce a nuclear weapon. The JCPOA was conceived in sin. I pray that Mr. Trump rips it to shreds.
28
The only thing that is keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is the Iranian nuclear deal. You said it yourself: they could start up again immediately which is why we need to keep the deal. Not to mention the impact on North Korea if we throw it out.
44
For what it's worth, the Agreement includes a pledge by Iran never to pursue the development of nuclear weapons, does it not? Also, having divested itself of 90% of its uranium reserves, if true, Iran is not in a position to "pick up where it left off." There is a bigger problem here: the diversion of the national interests of the US and Israel, or, at least, Bibi's Israel. The US wants stability in the region, which essentially requires the survival of the state entities that have existed since the end of WWI and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire. Bibi's policy is to see the actual demise of any nation state that poses a threat to Israel, such as Saddam's Iraq, Syria and Iran, no matter the chaos that results from civil wars across the region and stateless terrorism that threatens Europe and the US. The big question mark here is not Iran's nuclear ambitions so much as its expansionist ones. Is Iran truly attempting to turn Syria into a base for a proxy war against Israel, in conjunction with Hezbollah on the Lebanese front? Or a base for direct aggressive conflict with Israel? If so, Iran's mullahs are over-reaching and the consequences Iran suffers will and should be dire. The only way to sort this out peaceably is for the very nations that accomplished the nuke deal with Iran to work in concert to both define and contain Iran's regional ambitions. An essential start is to work in concert to end the conflict in Syria.
28
If you watched the Prime Minister's presentation, you may have noticed that the dates of the materials shown were generally missing, making me feel like either the accusations were sloppily put together or that critical information was not included. Thankfully, serious investigation of this critique of Iran has shown that little new information was made known. Mr. Netanyahu has expended some credibility here. Not that Iran should be any more trusted, but when friends let the world down, like this performance does, our wariness should increase.
1
Netanyahu is repeating his Iraq WMD fabrications and games that Dubaya dutifully followed. Would Trump dance to the same tune?
17
Actually, Netanyahu never claimed that Saddam had WMD but that he was working toward such weapons. Remember the Iraqi nuclear facility Israeli blew up? .... neah... With that said, the CIA did not rely on Netanyahu on this subjects matter. They did rely on the Mossad about bombs in airplanes, info shared by nutty Donald with the Russians ...
There's nothing more Israel can do to demonstrate that Iran is intent on building an arsenal of nuclear weapons and have been lying to IAEA and us since the inception of their program. The reason no one can prove they are building a bomb now is because, as Natanyahu pointed out, the facility at Fardo is not accessible to the inspectors.
Mr. Simon can not be this obtuse unintentionally. He simply chooses to ignore we have no idea what Iran is doing because the deal is so bad we can not find out.
How Israel got the information is obviously secret and why he chooses to dwell on it is unfathomable. The bottom line is would you buy a house from someone who lied about repairs? Would you do business with someone who lies about his shipments?
No, no one would. Why should we continue with this agreement if Iran is lying to us? If they are not building a bomb now (and we don't know) they are continuing the preparation to build a bomb the moment the agreement expires. 10 days ago, the blithering idiot John Kerry's buddy Javad, lied on US television when he said Iran never had an intention to build a bomb?
I don't know what will happen if we back out. We all know what will happen when the agreement expires. If the only way to prevent that is to back out then we have no choice.
If you don't think Iran is planning to build a bomb as soon as this agreement expires there's nothing more any one can say to you. You are willfully ignoring the evidence.
9
Well put. The situation is exactly as you described it.
3
A lot can happen in 10 years. No one says you don't go farther 8n extending the deal. Killing it just puts them back on track to building a nuclear weapon.
2
So this is a Bibi "Nothingburger" - I refer the headline writer to Mean Girls: "Shut up, Gretchen. Stop trying to make Nothingburger happen. It's not going to happen."
We have an agreement with Iran - most sensible people trust Iran about as far as they can thrown Iran - use the irrational and 'crazy' Trump to turn up the pressure on Iran and extract an even better deal - is this really so hard to understand by anyone that ever negotiates anything... ever?
Sheesh - we should be 'fair and reasonable' with the most evil country in the world after North Korea - oh - and by the way - how is that negotiation working out?
1
You can't get anymore pathetic then Trump and Netanyahu. Bottom feeders that make Bozo the Clown seen like the zenith of diplomacy. And their legerdemain wouldn't cut it at a four-year-old's birthday party.
Birds of a feather. Only birds aren't pathological liars.
This is what happens when the willfully ignorant take to the polls.
14
What does anyone think he’s up to? He wants the only terrorist state in the Middle East to be his.
4
Iran must not be "allowed" to have nuclear weapons. No MIddle East countries, especially the Muslim ones, must not be "allowed" to have nuclear weapons. When they have such weapons we must bomb them, invade them.
Oops. Is Israel a Middle East country? Does it have any nuclear weapons. Should we bomb them first to set an example?
17
You are comparing apples and nut jobs.
3
Netanyahu knows Trump is easily convinced if you get his attention. He knows Trump's team is already inclined in this direction.He's using this war charm to get Trump to do a George W. Bush and go to war with Iran. Let the USA do the dirty work and suffer the consequences,again.
130
Netanyahu went on Fox & Friends this morning with his deceptive and hypocritical message. Why? Because President Trump gets his foreign policy marching orders from the Fox & Friends hosts. That is the depth of his "research" on international affairs.
28
As a Jew and a sensible human being, I find Netanyahu to embody what my mother called a Schande vor die Goyim--a disgrace before non-Jews. He is matched (and perhaps exceeded) in narcissism by fellow serially married Donald Trump.
The two should get a room somewhere, and let the world alone!
23
The US to "suffer the consequences", really? The whole Iraq war was a desaster for the region's balance and it's not the US who's paying the consequences, but the Middle East and Europe with more war (Syria) and millions of refugees.
3
He is Trump's wingman. This shameless and coordinated stunt provides Trump with smoke to walk out of the Iran deal.
11
Mr. Netanyahu's power point talk would make a junior high-schooler proud.
10
Netanyahu is a joke and a crook. He’s not even respected in his own country anymore. This silly display, Fully fitted with a fancy PowerPoint presentation, was old news and not very good news at that. Even as he spoke with Chris Cuomo on CNN, he looked as if he was a deer in headlights. He knows he’s lying, he knows there’s nothing there, and he knows that the only person listening is the Groper in the White House.
I’m not sure what Netanyahu’s end game is, other than more weapons paid for by the US Government, and enriching himself, but he’s looking more and more desperate by the day. Iran is not to be trusted, but in many ways Israel is becoming less and less the country we all want to support. Sad.
15
Lost in this discussion are Iran's violent regional and international Islamist and imperialist acts, their lie about the previous nuclear weapons work in defiance of the AIEA requirement for full disclosure, the American complete lie that the govt had full intelligence, inc of Fordow's activites with 1000 centrifuges, the absence of inspections at some sites like Fordow, the aggressive missile program, inc the long range ballistic missile development in violation of another agreement, and the prevention of interviews with the same nuclear director now charged with "special activities".
4
So just like the 'proof' of WMD's in Iraq, the 'evidence'of Russian collusion in getting Trump elected' or the evidence of Syrian foreign suicide policy of using gas when they have already won their civil war, this 'evidence' by Netanayu like other false flag propaganda (think Poles 'attacking Germany on 3rd September 1939) is once again being presented by a 'casus belli' created to give cover for more aggression by the powerful against the weak.
In all cases except the WMD's (when we lied) this evidence will not be presented to the UN (where it should be presented) as we in the West consider the very international law WE created to unnecessary when the need to show REAL proof is too much of a burden or when we are not sure we can get the UN to support more aggression on our part.
Yesterday I read to my disbelieving eyes a majority of reader here supporting Israels right to shoot live ammunition at non armed demonstrators that has wounded thousands and killed hundreds based on the excuse that HAMAS is provoking Israel and that demonstrators are performing 'suicide by cop' which implies that the snipers shooting these unarmed men , women and children (and journalists too) are the victims and DEFENDING Israel though not even one Israeli has died.
We talk about 2,500 Putin bots Out of 3 billion on line people and $120,000 used to create Russian propaganda that 'interfered in and skewed the recent US election to Trumps favor' even though we spent $5 BILLION in the Ukraine!
3
so we have one dodgy, under investigation leader in Netanyahu spouting absolutely nothing, claiming it is everything to take the heat off him at home, hoping that another dodgy leader, under investigation leader in Trump denying everything, claiming it is nothing, to take the heat off him at home....in hope that they can both start something based on nothing that will make everyone at home look elsewhere....what an odd world we live in these days.
130
Netanyahu is a warmonger who is trying to draw the US into another pointless war for Israel's benefit. He is honest, corrupt and ruthless.
7
Reminded me of Colin Powell at the UN, hyping Iraq’s WMD programs.
9
Netanyahu was playing to an audience of one. It would have been easier, and more effective, if he just called Shawn Hannity and told him what he wanted to announce. Minutes later, some fool in Washington could repeat it several times, embellishing with various lies, and say “Everybody’s talking about it.”
7
This is right up there with the gallon of French's mustard they found in a trailer in Baghdad in 2003 which comprised the entirety of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program.. A very compeeling reason to go to war! Drumroll, Mr. Bolton!
13
Something is probably eluding me, and most of the world. North Korea has not only nuclear weapons that are functional and ready to go, but many several missiles that work well...
Iran has none of this, though perhaps they are working on some of it (and if the US is an example, they should, given the US is bending over backward to meet Korea's demands).
Why is Iran such an emergency, when Korea, a certifiable horror, is not? Iran, in fact has worked with the US to pacify Iraq, is no friends but enemy of ISIS, and has always been more open to Western traditions than Korea.
9
Iran is still threatening Israel and has a missile program.
Iran has no intentions of dropping it's atomic bomb plans. If this medieval thinking country had no atomic intentions then these records would have been destroyed along time ago.
5
In 2003 the US falsified, manipulated and cherry picked information to built a case for attacking Iraq.
The inspectors on the ground could not find any evidence for the US claims.
Post war inspections proved them right.
In 2018 Israel and the US collude to built a case against a successful nuclear agreement by falsifying, manipulating and cherry picking information. The show and the size of Bibi’s slides are inversely proportional to the truth of the information presented.
Inspectors of the UN atomic organization confirm that Iran is compliant with all stipulations of the deal.
Ironically Israel is the only nation in the Middle East with a clandestine nuclear program. It’s an open secret that it has a nuclear arsenal at its disposal and no intention to acknowledge it.
Have other nations and leaders learned the painful lesson on 2003? Will they have enough resolve to withstand the propaganda and bombastic lies of these obsessed and delusional leaders?
Both leaders are under investigation for ethic violations, and possible crimes.
As it stands right now I must sadly state that the authoritarian theocratic Iranian regime has more credibility in that matter than the two democratically elected leaders of Israel and the US.
197
Democratically elected demagogues while not the norm are are nothing new, and I for sure would not put Bibi in that class.If and only if President Trump believes that US interests are threatened by the Iranian regime, and breaking this agreement is a way to effect regime change then it makes sense to me.
Didn't the US topple the democratically elected regime in Iran some 60 years ago, aka regime change? And what was the end result? Much suffering for the Iranian people and a theocracy. Thank you very much.
Ironically Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that called for the destruction of another country. When leftists are ignorent of history they go on signing stupid deals with dictators. Just ask Chamberlain and Obama (hint: Syrian chemical deal... Iran deal)
The anti Iran folks could care less if its years old, out dated and inaccurate. They need a talking point so give it to FOX and let them OK it.
2
By his actions and timing Bibi is meddling in our politics just as much as the Russians are, except he is doing some of it more overtly.
7
This was largely just a PR operation, created primarily for the Fox News/talk radio crowd. These "earth shattering" new revelations will be rehashed ad nauseum for the 30 to 40% of the country that live within the conservative media bubble, with the goal of rallying their support for exiting the deal. A parade of neocon flacks from the various think tanks will inevitably make the rounds to hype the threat (kind of like 2003.) In the public relations business, this is called engineering consent.
8
Ol' Bennie also has a little corruption problem and trial on his hands, doesn't he? The image of him with the aerial photo of Tehran sent terror through me though - reminiscent of Cheney/W/Powell lead up to the WMD fiasco that led the US to war.
Bennie & the Israeli Jets need to stay at home and fight amongst themselves. Stop this war monger.
7
Trump and Netanyahu are both running for their lives against coming corruption and criminal investigations.
They are trying to stir war fever to divert from their imminent downfalls.
11
Should this saber-rattling result in real conflict between the U.S. and Iran, it would certainly be tragic. We cannot be unduly influenced by this right-wing government in Israel.
5
It looks like we are about to be lied into another war, and our elected officials are going to fall for it, again.
10
1) This is just Part-II of Nikki Haley's presentation from Dec 17, where she unveiled a parts of an Iranian Rocket. Since Trump & Republicans cannot gain credibility by showing this as an US Intelligence discovery, the venue and the person got shifted
2) Left OR Right, Republicans or Democrats, doesnt matter. In the US media, US Senate and the House, saying anything against Israel is a taboo and the media will be mild and polite. Imagine if Iran had shown a similar TED show with the number of Nukes that Israel possess and the Nukes that US has ready in many NATO countries, would the press give only a mild rebuke ?
3) And it is a clear fact that, Republican Administrations mortgage their foreign policy doctrine to Israel. Israel wants to thrive in stateless-Middleeast and hence dismantled Iraq through US, now instigating the same for Syria and Iran. Isnt that a common sense that if US can do everything to protect Isreal is a nation, then Iran could do the same to protect Syria as a nation - why is that a crime ?
I am so disappointed, frustrated, puzzled why US media will never ask such hard questions against Israel, while it rushes to judgement against Syria and Iran.
5
The Times yesterday said, "Mr. Netanyahu’s best case for a violation of the Iran deal came when he insisted that the Iranians had falsified their declarations to the I.A.E.A. in late 2015, by denying they had ever planned to build a weapon." Mr. Simon did not address this. Did Iran make a false affirmation when signing the deal? Does that matter?
3
I'm sadly disappointed by the way Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to actively mislead the Congress and the American people. I expect disinformation from the republican party since this has been their 'Modis Operandi' for over 35 years. But the integrity of the Israel that I grew up with and loved, is being eroded day after day in holding hands with the reactionary political right that is now relentlessly consuming our society.
There was a time when one could count on the honesty and genuineness of the Israeli government and it's people. But after the lying behavior of Mr. Netanyahu and his actively trying to interfere in our elections no one in Israel should be surprised at the growing distrust that his tactics have wrought.
Now having said this, I will always defend Israel's right to exist and defend itself from any and all efforts to delegitimize or forcefully, violently harm the Jewish Homeland or any of her people. I have to trust that there will come a time when the likes of the current government are voted out of the mess that befalls, and betrays the original mission of a fair and caring democracy that it was founded on. We here in America are struggling with the same distortion of our founding principles. Do not allow your nation to follow the War Hawks of trump, bolten and the evangelicals harboring hopes of destroying Iran (look to Iraq) or falsely believing in the second coming of the Christ. It's your choice.
6
I'm "sadly disappointed" by this letter.
I guess so many people have drunk the kool-aid against standing up for facts and for national survival, that I should be used to the above. I know it is trendy to knock people who like themselves and their country, who stand for rule of law and for a universal standard of good and evil.
Mis-characterization of complex issues, demonization, and delegitimization just do not make it in the world of reality.
1
You obviously didn't read my comment. I think mentioned how opposed to delegitimization I am. There is nothing complex about Netanyahu's efforts to campaign for one or another US candidate for president. This has never been a policy of Israel and the leadership have always kept their preferences out of the public view.
The use of critical thinking in any matter isn't drinking kool-aid. It's a shame that a more balanced response wasn't forthcoming in your critique.
Finally the survival of Israel is of paramount concern to me and I believe is in the best interest of all democracies. I don't really think that we have any disagreement in the well being of Israel.
Does any rational person really believe that Israeli agents (AKA, Mossad) could (1) infiltrate Iran, (2) find an 'abandoned warehouse,' (3) enter said warehouse, (4) find a treasure trove of 55,000 pages and "thousands" of CDs, (5) pack up said treasure trove, (6) slip out of said abandoned warehouse, and (7) get out of Iran with no shots fired? The Iranians are NOT STUPID, regardless of how much Israel and Trump may wish they were. Even the suggestion is absurd, and only fools WHO WANT TO DO SO would believe this.
5
Steven Simon really does not get it.... The point is not whether Iran complies with the nuclear deal, but that it lied and lies that it never worked on the development of nuclear weapons. This is not a simple lie but one more proof that Iran can not be trusted. Israel and the rest of the region understand that Iran has not given up on its nuclear designs but just agreed to a pause, while replenishing its treasury.
Iran is a clear and present danger to Israel, through its support to Hezbollah and its actions in Syria, and it is also a very clear danger to the Sunni Arab countries.
Maybe the nuclear deal should remain in place, but for sure it must be supplemented (through very strong sanctions) with limits on its ballistic build-up and ending its support to Hezbollah.
This is not a Nothingburger but more a big whopper.
23
Netanyahu doesn't want us to remember that Israel has lied about its nuclear program. But the whole point of the Iran nuclear agreement was that the US and its allies did not trust Iran. The purpose of the agreement was to put in place independent inspections and sanctions to insure that Iran did not restart its military nuclear program. I have yet to hear anyone explain why either the US or Israel would be better off without the Iran nuclear agreement.
25
Mr. Trump has lied about 3000 times in tweets, interviews and press conferences in his 15 months in office. Iran has covered up and lied about its nuclear program in the past but they have complied with every step of the agreement since 2015. It’s hard to acknowledge the painful truth but when it comes to lying the Trump administration has no rival.
22
I see that you missed the part where the world has known this information for more than a decade. It was part of the calculations when the deal was negotiated.
Deals and conditions are negotiated on the grounds of past actions, something the USA might need to consider with it’s current gleeful tearing of agreements.
6
It’s a minor point, but I find the James Bond story about the file theft hard to believe or at the very least self contradictory. If the Israelis really did that, it was because what they stole wasn’t that important. It hardly seems likely the Iranians would keep top secret information in an unguarded warehouse, but any bureaucracy might store files about material already known in a careless fashion.
3
Drawing US into another endless destructive war in the Middle East? Hope, this time people get to vote on it; not just the bent congress!
6
Maybe Trump and BB want to start a War. Everything lately is "Trumped UP!".
4
Israel’s contention is not that Iran is breaching the deal. It is, rather, that this agreement, far from preventing Iran from attaining a nuclear weapons arsenal, paves Iran’s path to it.
Netanyahu’s critics assert that there was nothing new in the material he presented — nothing new in the showcasing of Iran’s own evidence of its deceit, and of the specifics of its nuclear weapons program.
First of all, that criticism is patently false. The International Atomic Energy Agency, in its own reporting, has never claimed to have attained remotely comparable access to Iran’s own documentation. The Mossad spirited out 100,000 files. The P5+1 negotiators should race to pore over the material.
But secondly, if it is the P5+1’s contention that they knew every detail of the program as now conclusively presented by Netanyahu, and knew therefore the precise extent of Iran’s duplicity, then how could they possibly have negotiated so lax an accord with the ayatollahs?
3
He is concocting a diversion with/for Trump. Both are in trouble personally, and they deal with it by diverting and trying to convince everyone that they are the saviours of their microcosm. The readers of the NYT see through this, but many people don't.
5
Ware between the US and Iran would be a disaster for both countries. Let's stick to the P5+1 deal.
3
The best piece on this topic is Jeremy Bernstein, "If Trump Blows Up the Deal, Iran Gets the Bomb," which was published on April 5 in NYR Daily. Here's the link: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/04/05/if-trump-blows-up-the-deal-iran-...
1
Netanyahu is working hard to make the United States of America a vassal state of Israel. Unfortunately, he has convinced many Americans that is how it should be.
Ironic how far the USA has fallen to make itself great again.
5
Mr .Netanyahu to put it simply wants a war With Iran Fought By Americans with his help.HE already has Nukes and runs a barbaric state in regards to the way he treats the people whose land he confiscates and his use of brutal bombing and other strikes with U.S.supplied equipment . He Is a war criminal.
5
Knowledge of English is decreasing in Israel, outside of elite circles? Where'd you get this info? The opposite is in fact the case. And I have a 42 year Israeli perspective on this! To the point - of course Bibi was addresing his speech, in English, to international circles. They can do something, while the people of Israel can't.
2
As a Jew and long time supporter of Israel, it pains me that Israel's leaders have lost all credibility. Perhaps I was naive, but I met Mr. Netanyahu at the King David hotel after a Hadassah event in 1999, while living in Israel. He seemed a reasonable and intelligent man. Not sure what has happened in the intervening years, but he seems to have lost his bearings. I have a hard time reconciling his leadership, the state of Israel today, and my beliefs.
3
C'mon. It's obviously the first step in the fracas with IRAN, scheduled before the Midterms. Thanks, Pompeo. And, I told you all.
4
Since when does Donald Trump form opinions and then take actions based on facts? Unfortunately for Trump, he doesn't realize he is being played for a sucker here. Netanyahu knows his audience of one is terribly uninformed, lacks the energy to learn more and will likely believe anything he tells him. One needs only to look at the presentation to see that it is short on narrative and has easy to understand pictures....what more needs to be said?
119
This is quite a sad situation. The United State has been, essentially at war with Iran for almost 40 years since the Iranian Hostage Crisis (1979) either through its proxy, Saddam Hussein of Iraq or through imposing economic sanctions in coordination with the major powers of the world. And the Iranian people have paid a price. It has been the real price of stunted economic growth and hardship and death. So, I would imagine, human nature being what it is, the Iranians would be content to strike out at the most convenient target that is accessible to them, an ally of the United States. That might be Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or Israel.
We'd best be careful. We'd better think this through. We are headed in the wrong direction.
4
Actually "the war" started before the hostage crises, it started when the US through the CIA deposed the elected government of the day and installed the Shah.
You know, like they did in Chile with the installation of Pinochet.
Sometimes, when you start something it does not just go away.
5
Is this WMD Mk 2? Some of the same players are involved, some of the scare tactics are the same and the objective seems to be to involve the USA and other western powers in an unwinnable war, this time with Iran. There never was any truth in the weapons of mass destruction issue and it appears that Mr. Netanyahu is simply spinning already known information about Iran's nuclear program for his own political advantage.
Have we learned nothing from past mistakes? The USA and other governments should evaluate the facts carefully and not rush in to another conflict based on emotion and preconceived political ideals.
16
But what if he's right?
4
All the more reason to continue the international nuclear deal with Iran. If the deal continues, there will be ongoing inspections and checks to make sure Iran is complying.
There have been many inspections since the deal was signed in 2015. Iran continues to uphold the deal. Their move to nuclear weapons has been contained.
What is the allegations by Netanyahu and Trump....are false?
10
That's exactly what the FUD he and the Trump War Council are doing ( Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) as they prepare for a much much larger Iraq 2.0
2
America's support of Israel is strong but it's not unconditional. If the government of Israel picks a fight with Iran that it cannot finish, the U.S. is not going to invade Iran to save Israel. It will struggle to make a cease fire and an end to hostilities but it will not become embroiled in a war that will go on and on without any decisive end attempting to keep the Middle East oil flowing while trying to hold together alliances with countries which will not ally with Israel. Trump and a lot of conservative Republicans may want to get into just such a war but the risks to the U.S. and the global economy will check them.
7
I wish you were right.
2
There’s a bigger, complex, and more important topic here that needs to be addressed: Chaitanya is in an insecure political situation in Israel, and he’s also in major legal trouble. The latter could translate into even bigger political trouble for him. He is being extremely hawkish when it comes to Iran—about everything—lately as a way to garner support from Israelis. Being tough on Iran is always a winning formula for an Israeli P.M., as is being tough with Palestinians.
Netanyahu seems to be trying to provoke a war with Iran with military strikes on them in Syria.
Whether he is just posturing to get domestic political support, or actually wants war with Iran—a surefire way to get most Israeli citizens and essentially all political rivals to really around him, any discussion of Netanyahu in relation to Iran needs to take into account and discuss the political chess he is playing and how being a national leader in serious domestic trouble can be a threat to peace.
We might see a war with Iran by Netanyahu to save himself politically, and we should worry about the US being pulled into such a conflict. That's a huge threat to world peace right now, and coverage of Netanyahu, Israel and Iran needs to address this significant, immediate issue.
11
Just how does Israel think it will be more secure with a nuclear armed Iran? It defies logic except by those who believe that Iran is cheating even now. Or, perhaps more ominously, the Trump administration with its new anti-Iran war hawks has ambitions to repeat the Iraq War fiasco and undertake an effort at regime change, as new National Security Adviser, John Bolton, has strenuously advocated. The new alliance between the U.S., Israel, and Saudi Arabia--a major adversary of Iran-- makes this scenario more likely and extremely disturbing. Will the U.S. allow Donald Trump to stoke up phony fears of Iran to the point where Congress will once again submit to another, more disastrous, war in the Middle East? And with the mid-term elections coming up will the Democrats once again cave as they did if the fall of 2002?
15
I am shocked, shocked that Netanyahu would lie to the world in pursuit of Israel's interests. Netanyahu will fight Iran to the last American.
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Huh? he will fight Iran "to the last American"? When exactly has Israel ever asked American soldiers to fight their battles? Israel may have won every war - because losing means annihilation - but they have lost far too many of their OWN soldiers in doing so. I find it offensive that not only do you make this outrageous claim, but that so far 118 people have recommended your post
7
Lilo - I just watched his complete presentation on CBS (posted on Youtube, below). You say he is lying. Can you point out at what point he is actually saying a lie? Please provide a quote or the time stamp for the spot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmpgaig54-k
2
Fabulous then let's cut the apron strings and let Israel stand on it's own two feet. Time to let this birdy fly free. I'm sure we can come up with much better uses for the billions of taxpayer's money we've shipped to that country over the years. If they can't stand on their own two feet by now then they shouldn't be a country. France helped us win the revolution but I don't recall France still sending this country tons of money or arms 70 years after the revolution. The best thing for Israel would be to wish them well stop and bow out. There is NEVER going to be peace in the region.
Netanyahu is made from the same cloth as Trump, a bully with no regard for the truth. It takes a lot of guts to accuse Iran of harboring nuclear Ambitions, while ignoring that Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East. Unfortunately he gets away with constant twisting of the facts because of the blind support from the current administration, most recently blanket support for killing of unarmed Palestinian teenagers as “self defense”.
if you want to look at the biggest threat to world peace, look no further than Trump and Netanyahu.
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Israel has not threatened to wipe Iran off the face of the earth.
Iran HAS threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
History lesson No. 1 over.
7
Pakistan is a Nuclear power in the middle east.
4
And nearly came to war with India which also, I believe, has such weapons. Only Israel gets vilified. Now, why is that?
What was he up to? That's an easy one to answer:
1. He knows he can be a Trump "whisperer". Part of the reason he was so disrespectful to Obama is he knew deep down Obama could not be pliant towards Israel's position, which was extreme;
2. Mike Pompeo;
3. John Bolton
Do you have any tougher questions. Because that one was pretty remedial.
45
To begin with, I have comments on two seemingly throwaway lines in this article. The claim that fewer and fewer Israelis are speaking English is absurd and incorrect. English is becoming - for better or worse - a common lingua franca in Israel, and is in fact an important language used in Israeli-Palestinian encounters, as it is less fraught than Hebrew. Second, the term dog-and-pony show is outdated, offensive, and reeks of sexism and racism against unfortunates forced into the actions required in such a show. With that said, it becomes difficult to take the author's points seriously, despite his credentials. It is being said now that "everyone knows" - meaning the Obama Administration - that Iran really wanted a bomb, even as they said they didn't, and was really working on a bomb, even as they said they weren't. If that is so, it still has value to say the Emperor has no clothes, otherwise those who nodded along without saying so at the time would be continuing their coddling, co-dependencies, and enabling of dangerous falsehoods to be repeated over and over. Netanyahu may be impolitic in this instance; he doesn't feel he has the time to observe diplomatic niceties established in a different era, when countries faced different adversaries. He may not be gentle, but he is forcing people to own up to uncomfortable facts. He falls short in offering a credible replacement to the JCPOA. But he cannot be duly dismissed with alliterative allegations and error-filled epistles.
15
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_and_pony_show
Netanyahu was telling us the sky was falling 20 years ago with respect to the Iranians....and which people exactly, is he forcing to own up to uncomfortable facts? Certainly not the Israeli public, as this speech isn't for their consumption. Of course Iran wanted a nuclear weapon - it's their insurance policy against being invaded or attacked by the US, as both their West & East neighbors have been. Logical, no?
1
But, geez, everybody did know. I knew, just reading the papers. Iran had a nuclear program, and even though they said it was for nuclear power, not nuclear bombs, many in the intelligence community said that was all a lot of hooey. The capability was there.
The entire idea of this nuclear deal was to steer Iran away from developing weapons in exchange for lifting sanctions. Obviously, everybody concluded they were developing weapons, or why bother with a deal at all? Drs. Ernest Moniz and Ali Akbar Salehi, two MIT educated physicists, hammered out the original deal (Moniz as our Secretary of Energy and Salehi as Iran’s top nuclear official,) along with many other negotiators.
Bibi has dug up proof that Iran was lying. But, we all already knew that. He's putting on a big show about old news. By the way, you should look up what "dog and pony show" means. Mr. Simon nailed it.
7
>>> "Second, the term dog-and-pony show is outdated, offensive, and reeks of sexism and racism against unfortunates forced into the actions required in such a show."
You can relax. The term doesn't mean what you apparently think it means.
See 19th-century travelling circus.
4
Netanyahu's entire argument is that Iran told a lie about its shuttered program, one which no one believed; therefore, an agreement which was predicated upon an understanding that Iran had been lying abut its nuclear ambitions should be torn up. If this kind of "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire" pitch worked on Americans as a whole, Trump would not be president and Netanyahu would have no shot at a mad U.S. withdrawal from an agreement U.S. Intelligence and U.S. allies agree is working. Very strange all round.
22
The hypocrisy of this man. Netanyahu wants to shred the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran, yet he oversaw Israel's recent massive purchase of submarines from a company that is 20% Iranian owned.
He wants the young men and women of the United States to give their lives in the pursuit of yet another unnecessary war in the Middle East. He wants the treasury of the United States to fully fund this unnecessary war.
The Mossad itself and many senior past Israeli intelligence officials believe the Iran nuclear deal should be left intact.
I believe we just saw the last gasp of a world leader who will shortly be indicted for corruption, tried and imprisoned. . . . .just like the last Prime Minister of Israel. It's time for a new direction for the State of Israel.
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It is another example of why AIPAC, one of the most powerful lobbies working in Washington, that has a stranglehold on our Congress, should be registered as a foriegn lobby and not as a non profit 'public affairs committee.' Ever wonder why no US congressman ever criticises an Israeli action, no matter how horrible? And we have a fool in the White House that thinks a war with Iran is a better deal than diplomacy because Netanyahu told him so.
143
Love your well stated comment that addresses the AIPAC power over Congress. That have taken the time to understand and forthrightly address.
4
Holocaust survivor's son here.
Yesterday was the anniversary of Hitler's death.
Noted each year because he is responsible for the suffering of my father and his family - all his family killed.
He didn't kill them.
His words, his lies, his nefarious influence and ability to persuade people to their worst instincts killed them.
He was and always will be an example of evil in words and actions.
The number one worst thing to happen to the Jewish people.
The Jews of Israel have so much they could offer the region. In economics, culture, agriculture, examples of law and democracy.
Netanyahu lives in infamy for working tirelessly to scuttle the Oslo Peace Accord in 1994, jinning up extremists with crazy words, calling forth base instincts in his deluded followers that led to Rabin's assassination in 1995… all to make sure the liberal inclinations of the people were choked before peace could be reached.
Because Netanyahu loves strife and the influence it affords him… a permanent state of war which let's him play on people's fears instead of leading them to hopeful solutions.
Netanyahu, now under a cloud of corruption… enabler of Trump, who comes with this phony pronouncement, JUST IN TIME to give Trump and his men a pretext to BREAK AN AGREEMENT which even the most hawkish Israeli military leaders have accepted as rational.
Jews need allies and good relations in this world. They don't need baseless words that incite fear and lead humans to worst instincts.
314
Thank you Mr. King. I am so sorry for all the suffering you and your family have gone through. Thank you for sharing this intelligent perspective.
42
Whatever faults his detractors attribute to Netanyahu most of them agree that he is acting in a manner which he believes protects the Jewish State which protects the Jewish people. He ( and most Israelis agree) believe the agreement with Iran endangers Israel. He understandably will try and exert influence to nullify it. BibI has the support of the rulers in the Gulf States, Egypt and Jordan on this issue. If it is perceived by Trump to be in US interests then he'll act accordingly and scrap the agreement ,otherwise he won't.
1
Thank you for your summary of the damage being done by Netanyahu. You have the creds to say that; when I say it, I'm accused of being anti-Semitic.
3
One would think that Israel would still be embarrassed by their now discredited claims against Saddam Hussein. Instead we have a similar attempt to present Iran as being very close to developing nuclear weapons. Large photos seem to be still fashionable in such presentations. The information is presented with no caveats or warnings as to its reliability.
We know Netanyahu is under investigation for corruption. Numerous investigations are currently being run around the Trump administration.
One chilling aspect is that despite Iran fully complying with the international N
nuclear treaty, they are somehow against the spirit of the arrangement?
It now seems the US and Israel want to kill an international nuclear deal that is widely supported. Shame on them.
How could North Korea trust any deal they make with the US, if the US can suddenly refuse to honour any deal it has signed, without just cause?
41
Of course he gave his speech in English. His audience wasn't the Israeli people so it didn't matter if they understood what he was saying. The intended recipient of this speech was our darling president who needs an excuse to pull out of the Iran agreement. If Trump pulls out of this agreement which will void it, Israel will have no one but themselves to blame if Iran becomes a nuclear power.
43
Israel is our ally, and should Israel be attacked by Iran, we should do everything we can to support Israel. But that does not mean starting a war under false pretenses - we have plenty of experience doing that. Whether or not Iran had been trying to develop nuclear weapons, and whether or not the data from those efforts was stored (who would not have stored it?), the fact remains that we made a deal with Iran and from all accounts they are honoring their part of the deal. Trump thinks that the US did not exist prior to his sham election, so previous American commitments don't matter. The rest of the world however, seems to have more honor. It will be interesting to see how the US will impose new sanctions on Iran if the EU and China do not agree. They can choose to simply ignore those sanctions and deal with Iran anyway, which is exactly what they should do. The United States gave up its world leader status the day it elected Trump. Its about time that Americans learned that if they want to lead the (free) world, truth and honor do matter.
71
Once you realize nobody in Trump's or Netanyahu's orbit has the slightest intention of telling the truth, it all becomes very clear.
The hard thing for most of us is that we don't operate our lives this way, and we don't know people who do, so we can't make sense of these occasions. Hunger for raw power and greed are breathtaking to behold, as is bald-faced lying. That is truthfully what we are looking at here.
128
Yes. And in both men, a nearly congenital and ever-present anger and need to strike out and pick fights. Have you ever seen two more miserable-looking people?
5
The crime accused Yahoo, we hail,
Extolling his "where's the Beef" tale,
Like Trump a big liar
His pants are on fire
May end like Trump, serving in Jail.
23
So they kept their know-how on making nuclear weapons? Big deal.
18
Steven Simon is a confused man. What is publicly known today and what was disclosed voluntarily by Iran are two different things.the very fact that there is a gap between the two shows Iran's true intentions. It is naive to imagine, as Simon is trying to do, what Iran's intentions are. I do wish to see another war but giving a clean chit to Iran is an even worse option.
12
Yes, it's quite clear that you do wish to see another war. Somehow lost in this entire discussion is the very plain fact that the state of Israel has it's own secret and illegal nuclear arsenal. And given that Israel has started far more wars in the region than the Iranians, I wonder whose motives we should be questioning.
9
>>> "It is naive to imagine, as Simon is trying to do, what Iran's intentions are."
I don't see any indication that Mr. Simon is engaging in imagining Iran's intentions and I don't think Iran's intentions of more than a decade ago, whatever they may have been, are particularly relevant to the questions now at hand.
That Iran has fully complied with the requirements of the agreement is unchallenged -- at least by any who are both possessed of the facts and willing to be guided by them rather than by their own imaginations or stubborn beliefs. If you really don't want to see another war in the region -- and wanting one would be simply insane -- the very best course would be to deal with the reality that exists in the present.
5
"I do wish to see another war ..."
The classic Freudian Slip.
2
This briefing was in English because the target audience of one does not speak Hebrew. (He barely speaks English - but that's a subject for another day.)
198
Netanyahu's show was for one person and one person only - Trump.
95
I would amend this observation to say that it was also for Sean Hannity, Fox and Friends, their viewers and the rest of the right-wings echo chamber.
48
I'm sure Lindsey "Congress is with you Mr Prime Minister" Graham is also cheering Bibi on.
7
Just remember that this is the slimeball who got himself an invite from our elected stooges for an address to the "bent out of joint" U.S. Congress, where he took the opportunity to lambast President Obama, the last real President of the United States.
260
Yes, I remember thinking at the time that Bibi might slip and use the N-word.
17
Mr.Netanyahu spoke in English because his performance was geared to an American audience.He has adopted some of Mr.Trump's theatrics to impress people with his ideas versus the facts.He is peddling information on a halted program and Mr.Trump keeps shouting about the money we gave the Iranians which was their money which had been frozen for years by sanctions.Bibi and Donald want to break the nuclear halt with Iran.They have no plan for what is next.If Iran can keep developing nuclear weapons and we cannot halt the program in Korea,we will have the worst of all outcomes.These leaders need to play chess and not checkers.
30
Netanyahu knows that Trump hates any accomplishment that Obama did. The Iran agreement is one. I doubt if Trump knows two sentences of the agreement and doubt if he has any comprehension that the other nations involved in the agreement will not put sanctions back on Iran even if the USA does.
Netanyahu also knows how easily manipulated Trump is.
Netanyahu wants Iran to start up their nuclear program hoping that Trump will order strikes on the sites and involve the USA in another Middle East war.
Trump has already stated that this "secret" evidence of Iran's perfidy shows that he was "100% right" about the agreement.
Netanyahu has just done a very bad thing that may end up causing more American blood and treasure being spilled and wasted in another war that has nothing to do with our national security.
80
Obvious. Bibi is transparently recycling old news in order to convince Trump to exit the US from the Iran deal. The White House carefully changed their original statement to the past tense. Even Pompeo acknowledges that the US has known about Iran's past (i.e., pre-deal) activities "for some time."
A lame attempt, but it might work on Trump.
49
The speech, rambling and incoherent, does nothing to advance peace in the region. More warmongering from a corrupt, unstable PM. I do hope that he is prosecuted for his misdeeds, and perhaps the peace movement in Israel can begin to forge a coalition for a sensible PM.
51
That's because, in part, Netanyahu isn't interested in "peace in the region", let alone any semblance of peace with the Palestinians.
28
While much of what the PM said is widely known or surmised (Duh, who didn't think that Iran had a nuclear weapons program), the fact is that this evidence shows how central this program was (almost certainly IS) to their state policy. Moreover, the agreement called upon Iran to come clean with their attempts at nuclearization, which clearly they did not. It would behoove the world leaders to review this trove of documents and do EVERYTHING that needs to be done to prevent an existential threat which would threaten not only Israel, but the entire world. In light of Iran's clear motivations and intentions, there is a need for far more stringent and rigorous oversight of this agreement. Too many loopholes exist. The "sunset" clause, which would allow Iran to resume their enrichment program (while, of course, forbidding the production of nuclear weapons) has very scary implications.
11
"In light of Iran's clear motivations and intentions," which are what? Self-preservation? Don't you think the Iranians looked around to the East and saw Afghanistan invaded; looked to the West, and saw Iraq invaded; then looked at North Korea receiving food aid and no threat of invasion and thought they needed an insurance policy against invasion?
Is this deal better than no deal? Should we undercut our allies and adversaries alike and withdraw from it just to spite them?
11
And how about Israel's nuclear arsenal? Are we to believe that theirs is entirely in the interest of deterrance while the Iranian's is surely without a doubt an "existential threat" to the "entire world"? As so many of us fall victim to these bellicose narratives and warmongering, is it any wonder that Iran sees nuclear weapons as it's only chance for survival? If they don't already, they certainly will when the POTUS tears up the agreement, thus demonstrating to the world that the word of the United States is only as good as the sitting President. For shame.
9
For all you need to know on Iran’s nuclear program check out John Oliver’s last show. He provides real information while being funny. Netanyahu? A little shrill and not so funny.
58
Netanyahu cynically knows that anything presented as fact by Israel to America, must be fact. Double that for the Trump Administration and the current congress. Note that Israel is the largest, by far, recipient of US Foreign Aid, especially when counting forgiven loans for purchases of the most sophisticated US armaments. Now the US Industrial complex would not want that cozy relationship upset, now would it?
150
$3 billion a year is the tiniest of fractions of the US military industrial complex.
3