Netanyahu: Fears and lies

Benjamin Netanyahu is currently Washington’s uninvited guest, deciding the electoral boost back home is worth the White House snub. In any case, after Barack Obama’s overtures to Iran’s Hassan Rohani in 2013, Israel’s prime minister has been fuming.

“Iran gets everything they wanted at this stage and it pays nothing. I urge Secretary Kerry not to rush to sign. To wait, to reconsider, to get a good deal. But this is a bad deal. A very bad deal,” Netanyahu insisted in November 2013.

At issue is Iran’s nuclear programme, a programme Netanyahu has been issuing exactly the same warnings about for 20 years. It is not so much he is wrong; it is just that we have been here before with Weapons of Mass Destruction.

“Iran can quickly enrich uranium at 3.5% to 90%, which is necessary for a nuclear weapon,” is a claim he made in the recent past. Yet in 1996 it was “Time is running out”, and then it was “Now time is running out” in 2011.

In 2012 Netanyahu was at the UN with an almost pantomime-