(Wall Street Journal) Carol E. Lee - Top U.S. officials have sharpened efforts to undermine Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of his visit to Washington. Members of Netanyahu's inner circle described the prime minister as caught between the objectives of maintaining good relations with the White House and protecting Israel from an Iranian threat. In the end, they said, while damage control might later be necessary, Iran took priority. "Sometimes in the life of a nation you have to make hard choices," said Dore Gold, who has served as an adviser to the prime minister on international affairs. "This is a very tense moment. But Iran is not some agreement about a [West Bank] settlement. This is a life-or-death question for Israel." Gold compared Netanyahu's predicament with one faced by another Israeli prime minister, Levi Eshkol, who defied a warning from Lyndon Johnson not to launch pre-emptive strikes against an Arab military buildup in 1967, the start of what is known to Israelis as the Six-Day War.
2015-02-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive