In an interview with Erin Burnett on CNN yesterday, David Hazony, editor of The Tower, said that the success of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress last week shouldn’t be measured in electoral terms, but rather in diplomatic terms. By this measure, Hazony said, Netanyahu “made his case exceptionally well.”

I’m not sure that the bump in the polls that you see is really statistically all that significant. … In Israel it’s a very tight race and I think that inside of Israel I think that he showed the capacity, the gravitas to represent Israel’s needs on Iran in a powerful way. What’s important to remember though is that as we look at it as a political act we also simultaneously look at it as an act of substance, as an actual effort by a political leader to advance the interests of his country. And in this, I think he made his case exceptionally well. There’s a deal that’s out there … for years we’ve been hearing that the American position is that no deal is better than a bad deal, and what Netanyahu is claiming is that this is transparently a bad deal, it’s mind-bogglingly a bad deal and that anybody who says that Netanyahu is offering no alternative is essentially saying that a bad deal is better than no deal.

In response to a question about the number of centrifuges Iran will reportedly be allowed under the deal being negotiated, Hazony pointed out that Iran would be agreeing to a deal that would give it the capacity to build a nuclear weapon, not support a civilian nuclear program.

Well the deal actually that I’ve heard, that most people have been talking about is deal that would give Iran something like 6,000 centrifuges, which is not enough for a civilian program, it is only enough for a military program. It also doesn’t account for the fact that they’ve been a heavy water facility to produce plutonium. … they’re also building a plutonium track to a bomb through the Arak facility, they’re also building a ballistic missile program, which isn’t even on the table. It is very, very, very clear that the Iranians are building a nuclear weapons program.

Finally, Hazony observed that it is not just Israel that is concerned with the emerging deal, but Arab countries throughout the Middle East.

All across the Middle East, not just Israel, it’s also the Gulf States, the Saudis, the Emiratis … for years they’ve been saying this is a really bad deal we’re really concerned and they’ve been desperate to have their concerns taken seriously into consideration in the negotiations.

Hazony made a similar argument in an interview with Luke Russert last week.

The full video is embedded below.

[Photo: CNN ]