4, March 2015 Netanyahu’s
Speech
Alarmist rhetoric theme has
long been a staple of Mr. Netanyahu’s career. In an interview with the BBC in
1997, he warned that Iran was “building
a formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles,”
and urged nations to join him to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear
capability, stressing that “time is running out.” Earlier, as a Member of
Parliament, in 1992, he predicted that Iran would be able to produce a nuclear
weapon within three to five years. His speech last Tuesday, bore a strong resemblance to his
testimony before the House government affairs committee in 2002 warning of
Iraq’s possession of Centrifuges “the size of washing machines.” His own
intelligence service, the Mossad, categorically rejected Netanyahu’s dire warnings. So where is
Netanyahu obtaining his information? He seems to be using President George
Bush’s playbook in injecting massive doses of fear to rally feckless
Congressional members behind his bogus claims. His speech was pure theatre
designed to scuttle Obama’s effort to reach a peaceful accord with Iran,
forestall further conflict and offer a workable paradigm to degrade ISIS’s reign
of terror.
Netanyahu maintains the mantra of existential threats to
deflect from mounting criticisms of Israel’s illegal settlement activity, war
crimes committed in Gaza, and the very legitimate aspirations of the
Palestinians to have their own independent state. His ‘get tough on Iran’ speech was targeted
to Israeli voters portraying himself as
a ‘Churchillian’ personality deserving a third term in office. Finally, Israel
should follow Iran’s example and sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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