Worried ’Israel’: Iran Deal Historic Mistake, Opposition Slams Netanyahu

Local Editor

"Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the agreement reached Tuesday by Iran and major world powers on Tehran's nuclear program as a historic mistake and said he would do what he could to block Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"Iran is going to receive a sure path to nuclear weapons. Many of the restrictions that were supposed to prevent it from getting there will be lifted," Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders.

He further warned that "Iran will get a jackpot, a cash bonanza of hundreds of billions of dollars, which will enable it to continue to pursue its aggression and terror in the region and in the world. This is a bad mistake of historic proportions."

For her part, "Israel's" deputy foreign minister accused Western powers of surrendering to Iran Tuesday after diplomats in Vienna said that six world powers had struck a deal with Iran on curbing its nuclear program.

"This deal is a historic surrender by the West to the axis of evil headed by Iran," Tzipi Hotovely said in a message on Twitter, the first reaction from a senior "Israeli" official to a deal. "Israel" will act with all means to try and stop the agreement being ratified."

In response, most "Israeli" opposition politicians slammed the prime minister's handling of the US-led diplomatic initiative.

Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said that had Netanyahu not feuded with the Obama administration, "Israel" would be receiving a military assistance package as "compensation" for the deal.

"If you go to a deal, as bad as it may be, the way to minimize its damage is by arriving at an agreement with the US on a very significant security package," Herzog said, pointing to similar agreements negotiated by the US-aligned Sunni Gulf states. ""Israel" is avoiding doing this and is not negotiating with the US."

Zionist Union co-chair Tzipi Livni lamented the fact that Tel Aviv had no influence on the terms of the deal. It is "a dramatic agreement, and "Israel" is not there," she said.

"If anything is clear it is that Netanyahu is ineffective," she said.

While criticizing the deal, opposition politicians seemed to rule out working with the coalition to thwart it.

"The Labor Party must not be a partner to the attempts to circumvent the US administration by way of Congress. It has become undoubtedly clear that the bitter confrontation with the Americans was an utter failure that will be taught in history books," said Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich, a member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Former "Israeli" foreign minister and Yisrael Beytenu MK Avigdor Liberman, also in the opposition, likened the deal to the infamous 1938 agreement that appeased Nazi Germany and the US's nuclear disarmament agreement with North Korea.

The deal to be announced in Vienna Tuesday is a "complete capitulation to terrorism," he said.
"A black flag waves over this agreement and it will be remembered as a black day for the free world," Lieberman added.

Calling the deal a danger for the entire free world, "Israeli" technology Minister Danny Danon said the money the agreement will bring Iran will "fuel terrorism in the streets of ‘Jerusalem', Washington and London." The Likud lawmaker called on "Israel's" allies to reject the agreement.

Likud Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin lambasted what he called "a very bad agreement, setting a path that in ten years will allow Iran to have a large arsenal of nuclear weapons with the approval and consent of world powers."

Levin said the agreement would enable Tehran to continue its support of terrorism across the region.
Likud Minister Miri Regev said the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers gives the Islamic Republic a "license to kill."

Regev called the deal "bad for the free world [and] bad for humanity," and said lobbying against the deal reached in Vienna should continue.