The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist considered to be close to President Barack Obama, admitted on Sunday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has a “credible case” to make against an impending nuclear deal with Iran, an issue which Netanyahu will address in his speech before Congress on Tuesday.
In his editorial, Goldberg wrote that on Wednesday, the day after Netanyahu’s speech, “the focus will return to the president, his plans for the Middle East, and the many promises he has made about Iran and its nuclear program.”
“I’m fairly sure Netanyahu will deliver a powerful speech, in part because he is eloquent in English and forceful in presentation. But there is another reason this speech may be strong: Netanyahu has a credible case to make. Any nuclear agreement that allows Iran to maintain a native uranium-enrichment capability is a dicey proposition; in fact, any agreement at all with an empire-building, Assad-sponsoring, Yemen-conquering, Israel-loathing, theocratic terror regime is a dicey proposition,” continued Goldberg.
“The deal that seems to be taking shape right now does not fill me—or many others who support a diplomatic solution to this crisis—with confidence,” he admitted.
“Reports suggest that the prospective agreement will legitimate Iran’s right to enrich uranium (a ‘right’ that doesn’t actually exist in international law); it will allow Iran to maintain many thousands of operating centrifuges; and it will lapse after 10 or 15 years, at which point Iran would theoretically be free to go nuclear. (The matter of the sunset clause worries me, but I’m more worried that the Iranians will find a way to cheat their way out of the agreement even before the sun is scheduled to set.),” wrote Goldberg.
He continued by writing that the fact that Netanyahu “has no actual ideas”, as he put it, to solve the Iranian problem, “does not absolve the Obama administration of its responsibility to secure the toughest deal possible.”
“This is a very dangerous moment for Obama and for the world. He has made many promises, and if he fails to keep them—if he inadvertently (or, God forbid, advertently) sets Iran on the path to the nuclear threshold, he will be forever remembered as the president who sparked a nuclear-arms race in the world’s most volatile region, and for breaking a decades-old promise to Israel that the United States would defend its existence and viability as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” warned Goldberg.
Goldberg has in the past written several articles that have been critical of Netanyahu, including recently tearing into him for allegedly initiating the Congress speech, despite the fact that the invitation to Netanyahu was extended by House Speaker John Boehner.
Netanyahu, who landed in Washington on Sunday night, will address the AIPAC policy conference on Monday, and will give his speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
A senior official in the Prime Minister’s entourage said that Netanyahu plans to unveil some specific details of the agreement between Iran and the West during his Congress speech.
"We know a great deal about the emerging agreement," the official said, adding, "In our view, it is a bad agreement."