David Grossman, a prominent author and frequent critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said in an interview with an Italian newspaper that “Iran threatens the entire world; this time Netanyahu is right,” Israel Hayom reported yesterday. Grossman also said that the American position towards Iran displayed “criminal naiveté.”

“This is an expanding danger in the region which could soon pose a threat not just to Israel but to the entire free world. We need to listen to Netanyahu,” he said. …

The renowned author said the inclination to disregard Netanyahu, “even if he says the right things,” stems from his tendency to manipulate and his failure to differentiate between primary and secondary importance.

“But what he says about Iran and the destructive part it is playing in the Middle East cannot and should not be ignored,” Grossman said. “Netanyahu is right when he says that according to the emerging deal there is nothing to prevent the Iranians from developing a nuclear bomb once the deal expires in another 10 years, and on this matter there is no difference in Israel between Left and Right.”

Grossman’s assessment that the complete Israeli political spectrum is in agreement about the Iranian threat has been borne out by statements made by major Israeli political figures in recent weeks. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, wrote last week in The New York Times:

A nuclear Iran would endanger not only Israel. If it goes nuclear, the Middle East will go nuclear, putting world peace itself in jeopardy. This is why the Iranian nuclear challenge must not be seen as Mr. Netanyahu’s obsession, or anyone’s partisan issue, but as a central issue for the whole international community to address.

[Photo: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung / Flickr ]