JERUSALEM (AP) — When the U.S. and Iran met for nuclear talks a decade ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu railed against an emerging deal from the world’s most public stages, including in a fiery speech to Congress seen as a direct challenge to the Obama administration as it was wrapping up the talks.
Now, as the sides sit down to discuss a new deal, Netanyahu has fallen silent.
Netanyahu sees an Iran with nuclear weapons as an existential threat to Israel, and he is just as wary of any new U.S. agreement with its archenemy that may not meet his standards. Yet he finds himself shackled with Donald Trump in the White House.
Netanyahu is unwilling to publicly criticize a president who has shown broad support for Israel, whom he deems to be Israel’s greatest friend, and who doesn’t take well to criticism.
He “can’t do anything that goes against Trump. He’s paralyzed,” said Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv-based think tank.