U.S. and Israel Disagree on Iran

Signs of a rift between the United States and Israel emerged during a series of consultations at the White House on Monday. The disagreement between American President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerns how to deal with the nuclear threat coming from Iran.

President Obama stated that he and the Israeli prime minister agree that diplomacy remains the best strategy against Iran. “[B]oth the prime minister and I would prefer to resolve this diplomatically. We understand the costs of any military action,” Mr. Obama said.

Netanyahu spoke later in the day to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He used a different tone, saying that Israel’s patience with diplomacy and sanctions has eroded: “My friends, Israel has waited, patiently waited for the international community to resolve this issue. We have waited for diplomacy to work, we have waited for sanctions to work, none of us can afford to wait much longer.”

Netanyahu also vigorously asserted Israel’s right to defend itself against the Iranian nuclear threat, even if the United States backs away from a military strike:

Israel must have the ability always to defend itself by itself against any threat and that when it comes to Israel’s security, Israel has the right, the sovereign right, to make its own decisions. I believe that’s why you appreciate, Mr. President, that Israel must reserve the right to defend itself and after all that’s the very purpose of the Jewish state—to restore to the Jewish people control over our destiny. And that’s why my supreme responsibility as prime minister of Israel is to ensure that Israel remains the master of its fate.

Mr. Netanyahu made the case for a strike against Iran by highlighting the dangers of the country’s nuclear program, ridiculing Tehran’s specious claim that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes:

Now amazingly, some people refuse to acknowledge that Iran’s goal is to develop nuclear weapons. You see Iran claims to do everything it is doing, that it is enriching uranium to develop medical isotopes. Yeah that’s right, a country that builds underground nuclear facilities, that develops intercontinental ballistic missiles, that manufacturers thousands of centrifuges and that absorbs crippling sanctions, is doing all that in order to advance medical science. So you see when that Iranian icbm is flying through the air to a location near you, you got nothing to worry about, it’s only carrying medical isotopes. … Ladies and gentlemen, if it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, then what is it? What is it? That’s right, it’s a duck, but this duck is a nuclear duck and it’s time the world started calling a duck a duck.

President Obama’s view that Iran will answer to diplomacy contrasts sharply with Netanyahu’s belief that Iran’s nuclear threat must be met with force. Such public disagreement between the two powers undermines any united front they hoped to present against Iran, and America’s reluctance to endorse the use of force will prod Israel to look elsewhere for help in dealing with Iran.

Bible prophecy says that the nation Israel will look to is none other than its World War ii enemy: Germany. Keep watching the American-Israeli relationship, and watch for the Jewish state to begin turning to a new ally: Berlin.