Israel’s new ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer last week made his first speech since taking up his post. The speech took place in Los Angeles and among other things outlined the contours of what a deal over Iran’s nuclear program would have to contain to robustly assure that Iran did not sneak across the nuclear finish line:
I want to make Israel’s position as clear as possible. Israel would welcome a diplomatic solution that truly dismantles Iran’s nuclear weapons program and prevents Iran from achieving breakout nuclear capability in the future… At the UN, the Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] outlined the 4 steps Iran must take to implement such a deal. First, cease all enrichment inside Iran. Second, remove all the stockpiles of enriched uranium from Iran. Third, dismantle the infrastructure for a nuclear breakout capability, including the underground nuclear facility near Qom and the advanced centrifuges in Natanz. And fourth, stop all work on the heavy water reactor in Arak aimed at producing plutonium.
A poll conducted earlier this month suggested that the Israeli public broadly supported Netanyahu’s consistent position that Israel would, in the future, take unilateral military action against Iran in the absence of a robust agreement dismantling the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
Left unasked at the time was whether the Israeli public also approved of the Netanyahu government’s current diplomatic approach. The prime minister and other top Israeli officials have repeatedly and bluntly warned the international community that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is repeating an old strategy – and one that Rouhani has personally bragged about – of negotiating agreements, and then later violating those agreements. A recent poll probed the question:
Some 58 percent of respondents to the question “how would you rate Netanyahu’s recent performance in the global arena vis-a-vis Iran?” said it was good (41 percent) or very good (17 percent), said the poll published in Haaretz newspaper. Netanyahu and his government expressed bitter scepticism over nuclear talks in Geneva between Iran and the P5+1 countries — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany — warning his Western allies they risked being duped into easing sanctions prematurely.
A tracking question asking respondents who is best suited to be prime minister saw Netanyahu garner 63% support, more than double his figure from shortly after Israel’s January elections saw him reelected as prime minister.