By Richard Silverstein

August 07, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - Over the past few days, a tempest has been brewing after Pres. Obama defended his Iran nuclear agreement by correctly noting that the entire Israeli defense and intelligence leadership acknowledges that it has improved Israeli and world security. This apparently angered defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, who couldn’t leave well enough alone. As a result he felt compelled to rub Obama’s nose in it with this response:

“The Israeli defense establishment believes that agreements have value only if they are based on reality. They have no value if the facts on the ground are opposite to the ones the agreement is based on. The Munich Agreements didn’t prevent World War II and the Holocaust because their fundamental assumption – that Nazi Germany can be partner to any agreement – was false, and because world leaders at the time ignored clear statements made by Hitler and other Nazi leaders.

This is also true of Iran, which clearly and publicly declares that its goal is to destroy the State of Israel…This is why the defense establishment, along with the entire people of Israel and others around the world, understands that agreements like the one signed between the world powers and Iran don’t help, but only undermine the unwavering battle that has to be waged against terror states like Iran.”

So there you have it: a defense minister who compares Iran to Nazi Germany; and Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain; who deliberately lies about the views of his own military and intelligence command in the service of his own blind ideological obsession; and who lies in claiming Iran wants to eradicate Israel.

The circus atmosphere became more pronounced when Bibi Netanyahu, who agrees completely with Lieberman’s views (and has made precisely the same false historical analogy), released a statement which refused to renounce his defense minister’s attack. Haaretz’s report falsely says that Bibi “distanced” himself from Lieberman, but his statement did no such thing:

“The Israeli position on the Iran deal remains the same, but the prime minister staunchly believes that Israel has no ally more important than the U.S.”

Apparently, the only thing Bibi objected to was the Munich reference, one that the prime minister has often made in the past. Apparently, the comparison of the Iran deal to the Munich pact was one step too far. What’s curious about this dog and pony show is that Bibi and Lieberman play good cop-bad copy when they’re both crooked cops. It’s just that one talks a good game and the other would just as soon put a bullet in you as look at you.

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