This Thursday, Naftali Bennett plans to meet with the American president, presumably to discuss the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Jacob Nagel and Mark Dubowitz outline the problems with Washington’s current approach to its negotiations with Tehran—which has been allowed to accumulate a dangerously large stockpile of nuclear-weapon fuel and has every intention of producing more. Given this precarious situation, the head of the Israeli government must seize this moment to make Israel’s security position clear:
Prime Minister Bennett will likely not confront the United States publicly. . . . But he needs to be firm in communicating Israel’s main principles. Israel must not be part of a new agreement that involves returning to the [2015 nuclear deal with Iran] and must maintain its full freedom of action while strengthening its military options for dealing with Iranian nuclear capabilities. The U.S. and Israel should work together on gathering intelligence on Iran’s weaponization program and not accept Tehran’s attempts to thwart the International Atomic Energy Commission’s inspections.
If there is no other option to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, the Jewish state will go it alone. Any hint that Jerusalem will only act with American consent implicates Washington, which is good for no one. It would make it more difficult for the Biden team to assert plausible deniability after a strike and may complicate or block Israeli action. Israel must avoid another critical error—it should not enter any talks with the Biden administration about “compensation” or the definition of a “longer and stronger” agreement before Iran officially agrees to enter this negotiation.
Read more on Newsweek: https://www.newsweek.com/while-biden-aims-new-nuclear-deal-israel-must-stay-tough-iran-opinion-1613608