Ron Dermer
Ron DermerReuters

Ron Dermer, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, has sharply attacked both Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, for failing to take effective action against the emerging Iran nuclear deal.

Dermer served as Israeli ambassador in Washington for seven years and was considered highly influential. His latest comments were made on a podcast for JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, of which he is a senior fellow. In his speech, he excoriated Israel's leaders for not exerting influence over the Biden administration in its stance toward Iran and preventing a deal seen as favorable to Iran from being signed, Israel Hayom reports.

According to Dermer, Bennett and Lapid could have recruited Arab leaders to their side of the argument, which would have increased the likelihood that the United States administration would pay attention to their concerns.

"Bennett and Lapid published a joint announcement on the issue, but Israel has not made this [Iran] a central issue and has not launched a campaign," Dermer said. "As someone who served in Washington, I can tell you that there are ways of doing this. I would have given dozens of interviews, held meetings with Congressmen, and made sure they were broadcast on social media, television, all the main channels such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR... all the channels that the Democrats listen to.

"They should also have held meetings with Arab leaders," Dermer continued. "They held that Negev Summit, but they should have held a joint interview with an Arab foreign minister on the topic of Iran. Democrats across the country and on Capitol Hill would have watched such an interview. That's how a campaign should be conducted."

Dermer also stressed that the current composition of the coalition, including elements from the extreme-left to the right, presents an unique opportunity for Israel to present its views as representative of Israel as a whole rather than solely the opinions of one part of the political spectrum. He added that in 2015 when the original nuclear deal was signed, then-President Barack Obama presented the deal as favorable to Israel, a claim that the current U.S. adminstration is not even attempting to make, something that Israel should be highlighting.

"Israel has been virtually silent on the Iran issue," Dermer said. "If the government had been pointing out the dangers inherent in the deal, over and over again, this would have led to more and more Congressional members from both parties opposing it. Furthermore, if we had pushed our Arab partners to express themselves in opposition to the deal, this would have conveyed a critical message and led the administration to conclude that 'it's not worth it.'"

According to senior Israeli analysts, the new nuclear deal with Iran is basically ready and is just waiting for Iran's final response for all parties to sign.