Foes of Iran deal include lefties in Israel and America

Boy oh boy, some politicians have no sense of loyalty. Benjamin Netanyahu’s major opposition, which received support and advice from some of President Obama’s campaign people (as well as some State Department dollars) during the recent Israeli election, presented an Iran plan on Sunday that was more “hawkish” than that of Netanyahu.

Leaders of the Zionist Union opposition demanded that the United States “give legitimization ahead of time to any action Israel will need to take to protect its safety,” Ynet News reported.

The bottom line of the plan set forth by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni is a demand that the American government pre-approve an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Iran violates the framework agreement signed in early April.

Others in the Israeli left have spoken out as well. Eitan Cabel, leader of the Labor Party’s Knesset delegation said on his Facebook page, “I refuse to join those applauding the agreement with Iran, because the truth is it keeps me awake at night. President Obama promises that if the Iranians cheat, the world will know, but isn’t that exactly what the Americans promised after the agreement with North Korea? When a crazy religious regime with a proven track record of terrorism and cheating receives permission to get that close to a nuclear bomb, I am very worried. The fact that the man who is in charge of making sure the deal won’t be broken has a proven record of mocking his own redlines, makes me even more worried.”

Cabel wrote he is “standing behind Netanyahu” because “in the face of a nuclear Iran, there is no coalition and there is no opposition — we are all Israelis.” 

Aluf Benn, editor of the leftist Haaretz which criticizes nerly everything Netanyahu says and does, wrote on April 5 that Netanyahu’s call for Iran to recognize Israel’s right to exist as part of the deal was so good because it was originally the idea of Labor Party chairman/Zionist Union leader Yitzhak Herzog.