Netanyahu Speaks To Congress Making Claims Disputed By Mossad

Despite Israel's own intelligence agency, the Mossad, disagreeing with his assertions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a hawkish speech to the US Congress claiming Iran was on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon.That warning from Netanyahu has been made continually throughout the previous decades often with the warning of "three to five years" before Iran has a nuclear bomb.

In the speech Netanyahu labeled Iran the greatest threat to peace in the world even, in a surreal moment, blaming Iran for destablizing Iraq. Iran is, according to Netanyahu, the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world and determined to destroy Israel regardless of any deals. Which begs the question, what deal would he ever accept?

The speech started with lukewarm praise of President Obama (who claimed he was not watching) only to be followed with a blistering attack on the Obama Administration's policy on Iran essentially labeling the White House as naive. The speech was well received by Republicans in Congress, less so by Democrats 56 of whom boycotted the speech.

Netanyahu essentially called for regime change in Iran, a prospect he believes is possible though few elsewhere do. He also urged the Obama Administration to look at dealing with Iran like haggling in a "Persian bizarre," that it was acceptable and appropriate to walk away from a deal because Iran needs a deal more than the US or Israel does.

The context of the speech has to be factored into any analysis of the content, Prime Minister Netanyahu is running for re-election in a tight race.Highlighting his aggressiveness, even over-aggressiveness, against Israel's stated enemies positions him well with an ascendant right wing in Israel. But electioneering is by definition myopic and the long term, even medium term, consequences of sabotaging this deal are hard to predict.

In the end, Prime Minister Netanyahu may have hastened rather than prevented Iran from gaining nuclear weapons by taking the approach that no deal was better than any deal.