There are moments in the life of a nation when unity is required. Iran is nearing a nuclear weapon with a green light from the international community, while we continue to ask ourselves whether the prime minister needs to address Congress, and fret over the fate of his relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama. Is that really what we should be worrying about- The last thing Jerusalem wants is tension with Washington. The first thing it wants is for Iran's nuclear program to be stripped of all the components that will allow it to assemble a bomb at will. That is the whole story. The time has come to discuss essentials, not tactics. The matter of an Iranian bomb should not be part of the election campaign, but a consensus for all those who care about the future of this country. For over two decades now, the Iranian nuclear program has been a source of stress for Israeli prime ministers. I still remember how, after returning from my first visit to Iran in October 1993, I heard from then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's advisers of the concern over its nuclear project. Netanyahu did not invent the problem. Iran is the one that thrust it upon the world. Netanyahu is going to Washington to propose a solution. That is the difference. The problem is the timing. In Israeli elections are drawing near, in Washington there is a president who thinks a little differently. This is not a simple problem. The emerging deal is supposed to limit Iran's nuclear program to civilian purposes only, but the Iranians have lied throughout the entire process, ever since Iran became the Islamic republic. They built facilities and enriched uranium in secret, and they are still lying. You do not have to be a nuclear expert to know that the gap between a civilian program and military one is small, and that the regime only needs to want it, primarily if it identifies weakness on the part of those charged with supervising the matter. The emerging deal is not only flexible -- it comes with an expiration date. Therefore it appears a bad deal is will be signed in late March, perhaps even sooner. The deal will create an impossible reality for us: an Islamic republic with 6,500 centrifuges; an Islamic republic permitted to enrich uranium; an Islamic republic that is developing ballistic missiles; an Islamic republic calling for the destruction of Israel; an Islamic republic that denies the Holocaust. Our problem is not with Islam, it is with the Iranian regime. In a normal world such a reality would not be made possible. And this is without even mentioning the fact that Iran is the leading sponsor of global terrorism today, and a country whose involvement is evident in every problematic area in the Middle East. And this is the country being allowed to develop nuclear weapons- It would have been better had the Israeli prime minister departed for Washington with the support of his political rivals at home. It would have been better had the prime minister landed in Washington without the opposition of the White House. Obama and Netanyahu are in disagreement perhaps, but they lead countries that share alliances and values. These are fateful days; it is not the time to be handing the Iranians presents.
