Daniel Levy: Incoherence undermines Netanyahu’s attempt to sabotage Iran deal

Daniel Levy, head of the Middle East and & North Africa at the European Council on Foreign Relations has said that any attempt to undermine Obama by Netanyahu was let down by the incoherence of his argument:

"While Iran should win no plaudits for its regional role the attempt to depict it as the font of all evil is so reductionist as to be absurd. Netanyahu’s terrifying depiction of the consequences of a nuclear Iran in the region should be filed alongside his testimony in support of the Iraq war and its positive knock-on effects for the Middle-East. Netanyahu’s assertions of Iran’s genocidal intentions would be news to the twenty-five thousand Jews who continue to live safely inside the Islamic Republic, the largest community outside Israel in the region. If he is looking for regional sates with a history of expansionism he might look closer to home. Finally, Netanyahu’s riff on the threat to non-proliferation was worthy of an Oscar award for Chutzpah.

"Netanyahu’s call to follow the path less travelled should be seized upon by Congress and the administration to move ahead with a deal that offers the best prospect for insuring a verifiable freeze and partial roll-back of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme offers the path towards non-proliferation and greater regional stability. That is the path less travelled, not the tired re-heated rhetoric of Bibi doing doomsday and dissing diplomacy. Finally, it is hard to think of a worse idea than an Israeli Prime Minister owning a campaign whose logical end point is to send America off to another Middle-Eastern war. "