On Nov. 5, Israeli PM Netanyahu told Israeli TV he is ready to “press the button on Iran.”
Speaking of upcoming Israeli elections, Netanyahu said, “I guarantee that if I’m reelected at prime minister I will not allow Iran to get a nuclear bomb.” When pressed on whether he really was capable of following through on that guarantee, the PM said: “I am capable, if I have to. I hope that I won’t have to.”
Netanyahu then restated what he has tried to make clear to President Obama time and again to no avail. Namely, that “Iran is progressing, step by step.” Yet he intimated that he’s no longer waiting on the U.S. to act: “Today we are not begging other people to help us. Today we are prepared ourselves.”
It would be interesting to know how the news that the Obama administration has been negotiating with Iran affected Netanyahu’s thinking here. After all, the revelation that Valerie Jarrett has been talking to Tehran behind the scenes certainly paints a picture where Washington and Israel are on two different pages.
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