While Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was launching his assault on seven Palestinian NGOs on Thursday, Prime Minister Yair Lapid was pressing the United States closer to an attack on Iran that could send the entire region into an unprecedented conflict.
The Iran deal has never been closer to revival, but significant obstacles remain. It is a delicate moment, and Israel and its supporters are doing all they can to undermine diplomacy. The alternative, as we’ve already seen, is war. Joe Biden has continued Donald Trump’s murderous and futile “maximum pressure” policies, and the result has been enormous harm to the Iranian people and an Iran that is almost at the nuclear threshold. Without a deal, war is almost inevitable.
I examine all of this in my latest piece for Mondoweiss.