The New York Sun reports that Benjamin Netanyahu is getting ready to head Israel’s government again, warns of the threat from Iran and predicts President George Bush will act against the Tehran regime alone:
Benjamin Netanyahu, as part of an American tour repositioning himself for a return to the Israeli premiership, told an audience in New York today that President Bush is preparing to ditch the United Nations to take on Iran alone and that American politicians of all parties would do well to stop squabbling about Iraq and join the president in focusing on threat from Tehran.
The former prime minister, who leads the right of center Likud Party in opposition to the current government, went on to tell lunch guests of the Hudson Institute that another war between Hezbollah and Israel is inevitable and that a shift in Israeli politics is about to take place with his return to power and a return to the principles that guided thinking in Jerusalem until the Oslo Accords.
Largely ignored in the coverage of Mr. Bush’s speech Tuesday on the war on terror, Mr. Netanyahu told his audience more than once, was Mr. Bush’s statement that “the world’s free nations will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.” Not that the “United Nations won’t allow,” said Mr. Netanyahu, but that the “free nations” of the world won’t allow. Mr. Netanyahu called it a sign that on the Iranian problem the president was preparing to stop working through the United Nations and instead work with whoever would join him.
Of course, there are many forms of action: it isn’t necessarily military action. But it’s hard at this point to see what sanctions would work against the increasingly defiant Iranian regime. He also said:
— Claims about Iraq’s weapons were based on “conjecture” but there is no conjecture about Iran’s plans.
–Iran calls Israel “the little Satan” as “the first step.” Americans should realize who the next step is.
–Another war with Hezbollah is coming and Israel must act swiftly when it does.
Netanyahu was always one of the more interesting international figures to come out of the Middle East. Even back in the 80s, he was seemingly born to be interviewed on television. That’s unquestionable. The bigger question is whether his recent predictions will stand the test of time……
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.