I agree with Gershom Gorenberg that Israelis, and even their prime minister, have come by their post-traumatic stress quite honestly. I also understand that it helps the United States’ bargaining position vis-a-vis Iran when Israel is unsatisfied and asking for much, much more. The same is true of Congress, including some Democratic hardliners. When they make credible threats to introduce new sanctions on Iran, it allows John Kerry to make a better case for some kind of interim agreement. So, I am willing to tolerate a certain degree of criticism of the deal that the P5+1 made with Iran over the weekend.
There are other critics, however, whose opposition, while entirely predictable, is far harder to stomach. Jennifer Rubin’s analysis, for example, treats the interim deal as though it is a final settlement. It’s the kind of sophistry she is known for.
I’m tempted to write something in Michael Tomasky’s vein. I feel like yelling at the people who supported war in Iraq (and Syria) but now offer criticism of negotiations with Iran. Don’t they realize that they are always wrong about everything?
If every instinct that John Bolton and Sarah Palin have is wrong, couldn’t you develop a fantastically successful foreign policy simply by doing the opposite of whatever they suggest?
I think you could get by quite well with a strategy like that.
I do think, however, that Netanyahu’s Agreement Anxiety Disorder is “is so intense it should disqualify him from public office,” and that “the poor man is not thinking clearly.” He’s going beyond playing the bad cop to Obama’s good cop. He’s creating ill-will toward his country from millions of people who support the party preferred by American Jews. There are twelve Jewish senators, none of whom are Republicans. Twenty-one out of twenty-two Jewish members of the House are Democrats. And Netanyahu is accusing their president of being some kind of disloyal idiot. This is not a way to maintain strong American support for Israel. It’s just not. Maybe some of our Jewish readers can chime in here and tell me I’m off base, but my strong impression is that most American Jews are pretty angry with how Netanyahu is behaving. Some of the other core groups in the Democratic coalition may pay less attention and feel less strongly about these issues, but they can’t be happy either. We elected Obama to pursue diplomacy and make war a last resort. He’s doing what we asked him to do.
