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Nostalgia for the Iran Deal Is a Dangerous Illusion
(Times of Israel) Yossi Klein Halevi - Few in Israel opposed the U.S. killing of Iran's military chief Qasem Soleimani. Israelis take the Iranian regime's genocidal rhetoric seriously, and see in its destabilization of the region proof of its murderous credibility. With Iranian proxy Hizbullah in Lebanon, Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria, and Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, Israel is now effectively surrounded by Iranian and pro-Iranian forces - a process directed by Soleimani. For Israelis this is about facing a potentially existential threat. A near-total consensus exists here on the need to confront Iranian expansionism. Israelis tend to dismiss those voices in the West that blame current tensions on the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal. For Israelis, that deal all but ensured the inevitability of war with Iran by empowering it to become the regional bully. Nostalgia for the Iran deal is a dangerous illusion. The writer is a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.