Both Kenneth Bialkin’s online Opinion piece, “The Framework – A Cul-de-Sac” (http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/framework-cul-de-sac-0), and Edith Everett’s online Opinion, “Why The Iran Deal Makes Sense” (http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/why-iran-deal-makes-sense), about the Iran nuclear talks, presented cogent, hard-headed analysis against wildly wishful thinking.
As of now, there is no actual agreement, only an extremely vague framework for continuing negotiations. Some absolutely critical issues remain unresolved. Very different understandings, particularly concerning the extent and timing of sanctions relief, are already emerging. Though the Obama administration is awash in self-congratulation, it is the Iranians who are smiling. With the administration so visibly desperate for just about any deal, could it really be that it was they who finally blinked? That regime has never met an agreement it wouldn’t break, nor any lie it wouldn’t speak.
Even without cheating, subset provisions would leave Iran an economically powerful, militarily aggressive, nuclear threshold state, spelling curtains for the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
For Obama, hardly “the greatest friend to Israel,” everything’s personal, viewing any agreement as his foreign policy legacy. He’s very unlikely, though, to be very happy about what is nearly certain to be the ultimate highly negative verdict of history.
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