WarSclerotic

Netanyahu’s ‘decharm offensive’ gets underway | The Times of Israel.

The PM’s UN speech was just the beginning; he is set to remind the world of the Iranian president’s true face in an upcoming media blitz

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday October 1, 2013 at the United Nations headquarters in New York (photo credit: AP/Andrew Gombert,Pool)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to New York with one goal in mind: splashing cold water on Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani recent charm offensive and discrediting his ostensibly moderate positions in the nuclear standoff with the West.

During his speech Tuesday at the United Nations, Netanyahu spared no effort to expose how the Iranian leader’s recent statements contradict his true positions, telling the world that Rouhani is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” who “executes political dissidents by the hundreds and thinks “he can have his yellowcake and eat it too,” and that a nuclear Iran would be like “another 50 North Koreas.”

Netanyahu mentioned Rouhani by name more than two dozen times, quoting articles, statements and positions attributed to him dating back to his tenure as Iran’s national security advisor in the 1990s. (A dirty trick, some analysts opined, since Netanyahu knows just too well how politicians’ positions can change over time.)

Rouhani wooed the West with his benevolent UN speech last Friday, which was followed by a media blitz during which he kept on espousing benign and peace-loving positions, vowing not to seek nuclear war with any nation, and even condemning the Holocaust.

Netanyahu came to the US to rain on his parade. He relishes being a party-pooper, proudly taking the air out of Rouhani’s PR balloon by showing the world what he believes to be the Iranian leader’s true face as a deceitful, hypocritical terrorism-sponsoring fanatic, and a danger to the entire civilized world. And Tuesday’s speech was just the beginning.

In a highly unusual step, the prime minister devoted two full days in New York to giving interviews to as many American news outlets as possible. Originally scheduled to return on Wednesday, he extended his stay by one full day to make sure every American journalist gets the chance to inform his or her audiences about Rouhani’s real stances.

Netanyahu wants to have the last word but the timing of his planned “decharm” offensive is off, with the American public currently preoccupied more with the government shutdown and Obamacare than with what happens in a part of the world that has already caused the US so many headaches over past few years.

Nonetheless, he will eagerly embark on marathon sessions of interviews and repeat, over and over again, the same soundbites about Rouhani’s alleged hypocrisy — he knows how important public opinion is when it comes to decisions of war and peace in the Middle East, not least because of the Syrian precedent.

Last month, US President Barack Obama issued a military threat against the Bashar Assad regime, following the alleged chemical weapons attack on August 21 that killed more than 1,000 civilians — later saying he would seek Congressional approval before giving an order to attack. British Prime Minister David Cameron, too, believed a military intervention was needed, but a non-binding notion to that effect was defeated by parliament.

What happened then with Syria could happen again with Iran, Netanyahu knows. The American people — wary of another misadventure in the Middle East and preoccupied with the government’s failure to pass a budget — and the administration in Washington, which currently seems inclined to buy into Rouhani’s overtures, need a reminder of Iran’s true intentions, he believes.

The prime minister also brought with him to New York a message for diplomats and decision-makers in the capitals of the world: the policy of combining heavy sanctions with a credible military threat really works. The sanctions are what forced the Iranians to come to the negotiating table, and as long as they keep on heading toward nuclear weapons capabilities, the sanctions should be increased, he urged.

But sanctions alone aren’t enough, Netanyahu said, and threatened to intervene militarily if Iran were to get to the point where it could build a bomb. “Israel will never acquiesce to nuclear arms in the hands of a rogue regime that repeatedly promises to wipe us off the map. Against such a threat, Israel will have no choice but to defend itself,” he said.

Yet despite the explicit threat, Netanyahu knows that an Israeli strike — or any strike, for that matter — is not imminent. Iran has decided not cross the red line he drew at last year’s UN General Assembly.

Instead, the Islamic Republic likes the idea of being a threshold nation — not yet armed with nuclear weapons but equipped with breakout capability. The regime’s current effort to solve the nuclear standoff by entering serious negotiations with Western powers make an Israeli military intervention in the next few months exceedingly unlikely.

Netanyahu’s speech Tuesday, and the many interviews he will give over the next two days, are meant to ensure that the public and policymakers don’t forget with whom they’re dealing.

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