Benjamin Netanyahu Is Freaking Out About The Iran Deal

[Purveyor]

Updated by Zack Beauchamp on July 13, 2015, 11:30 a.m. ET @zackbeauchamp [e-mail]

The negotiations over Iran's nuclear program in Vienna appear to have reached a critical point — the latest, from the Washington Post's Carol Morello, describes a deal between world powers and Iran as "imminent."

So naturally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — one of the most prominent critics of President Obama's outreach to Iran — has been throwing a public fit. Though his hysterics probably can't stop a deal now, there's a point here: one that's perhaps best understood by looking at what Netanyahu's domestic opponents are saying.

Netanyahu declared, on Monday morning, that some of the negotiating countries (a clear reference to the Americans) were "willing to make a deal at any price."

He has no real evidence for this: Little information about the deal's terms has come out since April, when the countries reached an initial deal on the broad contours that was favorable to the US. Netanyahu's "proof" is that negotiations continued after Iran's latest annual Quds Day rally, in which a relatively modest number of ralliers in Tehran chanted "death to America." He said, "If the concessions continue even after 'death to America' chants in Tehran, then it is clear that some are willing to make a deal at any price."

It is difficult to take Netanyahu seriously here. Iran's officially sanctioned "death to America" chants 1) don't reflect the view of Iran's citizens, and 2) have exactly nothing to do with whether this deal will limit Iran's progress towards a nuclear weapon.

MORE...

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8947033/netanyahu-iran-deal-freakout

[Scootaloo]

1. Awwww. Does he need some ice cream? n/t

[geek tragedy]

2. "Iran's ultimate goal is to take over the world." This isn't a parody Twitter account, this is

what the elected leader of Israel claims.

He's like Bush and Cheney combined into one human being.

Of course, he's going to 11 on the Shrill-O-Meter because the Israeli 'left' is already at 10 in their hysterical denouncements of diplomacy resolving the issue.

[LittleBlue]

3. Netanyahu meltdown: Launches twitter account to engage Iranians

You can't make it up

Israel's Netanyahu Launches Farsi Twitter Account To Reach Out To Iranians

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/13/netanyahu-farsi-twitter_n_7786378.html

I'm feeling second-hand embarrassment from this desperation.

[hifiguy]

4. Give the little shit a high colonic

and send him on a twenty-mile hike.

Fuck Netanyahoo with a pitchfork. Sideways.

[gratuitous]

5. Pay attention

Because this will be the basis for Republican yammering about everything that's wrong with dealing with Iran. Look for incessant invocations of our good friend Israel, and how it makes baby Jesus weep big, fat tears that America is turning its back on the only democracy in the Middle East (but really, does this mean the Second Coming? Because fuck that shit from Amos, it's time God got to smiting everybody I hate).

Next week, of course, when the terms are revealed, and it's something that Netanyahu decides he can live with after all, he'll just do his patented "just kidding" routine, and we should all believe him now. The Republicans don't have to get that part of the message, and they're not going to care anyway, because apocalypse.