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Why the U.S. and Israel Are Split over the Iran Deal

(CNN) Aaron David Miller - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fierce reaction to the effort to reach an interim agreement with Iran reflects the realities of a small power with much less room to maneuver on a critical security issue than a great one. It reveals the sensitivities of an Israeli leader who's far more suspicious of Iranian motives and far more worried about the consequences of a bad deal for Israel than a U.S. president who's concerned more about what happens if there's no deal and Israel or the U.S. slides toward military confrontation with the mullahs who rule Iran. With non-predatory neighbors to its north and south and fish to its east and west, the U.S. enjoys an unprecedented level of physical security that gives America a margin for error that Israel simply cannot afford. Indeed, Americans have a hard time internalizing what it's like to be a small nation living on the knife's edge. Israel's history has been marked by a continuous series of threats by virtue of where the Israelis are. To satisfy Israeli requirements, an interim agreement would have to avoid doing anything that dismantles the sanctions regime and removes real pressure on Iran to cut the final deal. It would make it impossible for Iran to use the next six months to advance in a significant way any of the aspects of its nuclear program - not just to freeze Iran's program but to actually set it back significantly. The U.S. has no stake in concluding an agreement with Iran that leaves Israel aggrieved and vulnerable. The writer is a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
2013-11-12 00:00:00
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