Netanyahu and Obama: A Controversy, and an Update

There's some controversy about just what Bibi Netanyahu said to me when we were talking about the challenge President Obama faces on Iran. Gary Rosenblatt, the editor of the New York Jewish Week, writes:

 "This week (Goldberg) landed another major interview, this time with Benjamin Netanyahu on the day he was sworn in as Israeli prime minister. The interview offers insights into Netanyahu's priorities and strategies in dealing with foreign policy. But it does not make good on its headline: "Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran - Or I Will." Nowhere in the Goldberg piece does Netanyahu say that Israel plans to attack Iran, nor does it even hint that the new Israeli leader will offer an ultimatum to Obama."

Rosenblatt's got a partial point here -- the headline is an interpretation of Netanyahu's statements, and framed in such a way to perhaps make an Israeli prime minister squeamish -- even when Israeli leaders make demands on America, they don't like to be seen as making demands on America. On the other hand, Netanyahu signals in about a dozen different ways that if the world doesn't deal with this problem, Israel will be forced to. And his advisers, speaking on background, made themselves even more clear.

But since there's some confusion on this point -- and since, through the miracle of blog technology, I can update articles as I see fit -- I'll give you two quotes that I neglected to include in the first piece. The first one is from one of Netanyahu's defense advisers, speaking on background: "We have to make sure our friends in Washington know that we can't wait forever. There will come a point soon when it will be too late to do anything about this program. We're going carefully, but if we have to act, we will act, even if America won't."

The second is from Netanyahu: "Iran has threatened to annihilate a state or to have a state wiped off the map of the world. In historical terms, this is an astounding thing. It's a monumental outrage that goes effectively unchallenged in the court of public opinion. Sure, there are perfunctory condemnations, but there's no j'accuse - there's no shock and there's a resigned acceptance that this is acceptable practice. Bad things tend to get worse if they're not challenged early. Iranian leaders talk about Israel's destruction or disappearance while simultaneously creating weapons to ensure its disappearance."

I followed this statement with a question: Is there any chance that Iran could be stopped through non-military means? Netanyahu responded: "Yes I do, but only if the military option is left on the table."

Based on all these statements, I think it's fair to say that Netanyahu, when he comes to America, will tell President Obama that should America fail to suppress the Iranian nuclear program, Israel will have to try.