Thank you to Gary Rosenblatt for his balanced column, “As Iran Crisis Mounts, Humility Is In Order” (Sept. 21).
The piece correctly urges American Jews to deepen their appreciation of the existential threat under which the Israelis labor. But what I feel Rosenblatt did most compellingly was to call out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his arrogance, for his blatant attempt to intervene in the American election to Mitt Romney’s advantage: “… I can’t understand why the Israeli leader chose to go public, insisting on ‘red lines’ and embarrassing his most powerful ally, resulting in the opposite of the desired effect and looking to all the world like he is trying to manipulate the American November election in favor of the president’s opponent. … Netanyahu could have made the same arguments about the need for action against Iran privately and through diplomatic channels, with facts rather than arrogance. … Giving an ultimatum to one’s enemy makes sense. Giving one to your closest ally, publicly, as Netanyahu has done, seems self-defeating.”
No one has said this, or can say this, better. Rosenblatt captured my indignation at this attempted power play.
San Francisco
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