Tuesday, March 3, 2015

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In Iran, Too, Netanyahu Speech Finds an Eager Audience - New York Times


TEHRAN — The tensions between the United States and Israel over how to address Iran’s nuclear program and a politically divisive speech Tuesday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to the United States Congress are playing to an eager audience in Tehran.


The news media here has highlighted the division as evidence that Israel is being isolated by its otherwise steadfast ally and analysts are examining how the rift might affect the outcome of the nuclear negotiations.


“Israel’s prime minister tries to maximize the stakes and raise the expectation for the outcome of the talks,” Hamid Reza Taraghi, a political analyst close to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said after Mr. Netanyahu’s speech Tuesday.


“Israel is trying to pressure us, to make Iran cave in,” he added. “No way that will ever happen.”



Mr. Netanyahu’s speech was eagerly anticipated by many Iranians, not because they believe he would be able to halt the nuclear talks, but because they said they hoped the Israeli leader’s blunt approach would turn American public opinion against him.



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What the United States and Iran want out of discussions over Iran’s nuclear development.




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The strains between the United States and Israel, known by some hard-liners here as the “great and little Satan,” have become increasingly public as Washington and Tehran seek to conclude an agreement that would limit Iran’s ability to continue developing its nuclear capacity.


“This speech shows the deal is imminent, this is why Mr. Nethanyahu is desperate,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, a policy analyst in Iran close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. “It is not important what he says in Congress, the deal is coming.”


For decades, Iran’s leaders have been arguing that United States foreign policy has been taken hostage by Israeli interests. In speeches, they denounce what they say is the power and influence of pro-Israel lobbying groups over politicians in Washington.


“We are very happy that people are starting to understand the national security interests of the United States differ from those of Mr. Netanyahu,” said Ali Khorram, a former Iranian diplomat with close ties to the government. “If he continues like this, Mr. Netanyahu will only lose more credibility in the eyes of the Americans.”


Iran does not recognize Israel as a country, and over the past decades some of its leaders have taken a bellicose stance toward Israel, including the former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who threatened to make Israel “vanish from the pages of time,” something that has also been translated as “Israel must be wiped off the map.”


Now, with the bond between the United States and Israel facing pressures from both sides, the Iranian news media is joyously reporting on protests in front of the Washington headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or Aipac, Israel’s main lobby group in the United States.


“People are shouting slogans in favor of Iran,” the semiofficial news agency Tasnim reported on Tuesday, showing pictures of Jewish men belonging to a sect that opposes Zionism. In one image, a man could be seen holding up a sign saying “Aipac violates Judaism.”


The state-owned newspaper Tehran Times featured an image of protesters wearing Netanyahu masks smeared with a blood-like color. “Protests held in Washington against Netanyahu,” the headline read.



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Conservative clerics and military commanders fiercely loyal to Ayatollah Khamenei have long opposed the United States, and they insist that American politicians will never give up their enmity against Iran because the two countries have irreconcilable ideologies. In recent years, Iran has benefited from the American pullout from the region, filling a vacuum in Iraq and openly supporting a power takeover in Yemen.


Together with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran has been assisting Bashar al-Assad, the embattled president of Syria.


Beyond the evident glee over the open disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem, most Iranian analysts say they did not think that Mr. Netanyahu’s speech will really damage ties between the United States and Israel. “This is more of a political game for Netanyahu,” said Nasser Hadian, a professor of political science at the University of Tehran. “After his elections he will start mending ties again.”


Others, however, said that they think Mr. Netanyahu’s speech before Congress could affect the delicate nuclear negotiations.


“Netanyahu’s offensive may stiffen the U.S. posture at a time when flexibility is crucial, but not for the reason most suspect,” said Mohammad Ali Shabani, a political analyst, ahead of Mr. Netanyahu’s speech.


“If America toughens, it won’t be because Bibi has forced Obama’s hand, but because he has made the U.S. and its demands appear more reasonable,” he said, using Mr. Netanyahu’s nickname.


“Any party that feels that it can win the blame game is less likely to adopt the flexibility necessary for a breakthrough,” he added.


Mr. Shabani, who had worked for an Iranian think tank, said that for Iran, all politics is local. Now, he said, all leaders want a nuclear deal, “but their unity is predicated on a commitment to ensuring that the domestic blame game will be won; and so far, they have succeeded.”


Still, some in Iran said that things were more clear than that. “The rift between both allies is nothing more than a political trick,” said Mr. Taraghi, the Iranian political analyst. “This so-called rift is a petty game of good cop, bad cop. We will not fall for that.”









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