When analyzing President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, it’s important to take Netanyahu’s viewpoint of existential threats in the correct context. While Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo doesn’t think Iran poses an existential threat and stated “the term existential threat is used too freely,” Israel’s PM never refrains from grandiose political hyperbole. According to Ynet, Netanyahu once told his cabinet that “Hamas is trying to start another Holocaust.” He’s compared Iran to the Nazis (even though Iran hasn’t invaded a country, controlled a continent, set up death camps, or persecuted its 9,000 Jews) and also referenced the Holocaust regarding Hezbollah’s threat to Israel. At the UN, Netanyahu stated “Hamas is ISIS and ISIS is Hamas.”

It’s a wonder, then, why any of them have different names at all. Netanyahu’s political paradigm for some reason doesn’t address the fact that Iranian fighter jets recently bombed ISIS or that Iran is enemies with Saudi Arabia. The Sunni-Shia conflict in the Middle East creates odd political bedfellows, which is why Shia Iran fights against Sunni ISIS. Similarly, it’s a wonder why Netanyahu didn’t protest the America’s (largest ever) $60 billion weapons deal to Saudi Arabia, especially since MI6’s Alastair Cook has linked the Saudis to the creation of ISIS. Furthermore, during Obama’s negotiations with Iran, one motivator could have been that Iranian backed militias recently helped wrestle Tikrit away from IS. All these reasons, and more, illustrate that we must never let euphemism and grandstanding overshadow the complex nature of Middle East politics. Women can’t even drive a car in Saudi Arabia, yet the US gives billions in weapons to the Saudis.

Why Obama’s Iran deal is good for the US and Israel

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