Iran Back on Top of Netanyahu’s Agenda

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu returned to the theme of the Iranian peril on Thursday, in a speech at Yad Vashem to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Since the conclusion of the Iran nuclear agreement a year ago, despite his relentless criticism of it, Netanyahu has turned his attention to other issues. The election of President Donald Trump has changed that.

On Thursday night, Netanyahu once again decried the international silence in the face of Iranian threats against Israel.

“…When a regime [Iran] calls to wipe out every Israeli – which is what they say day in day out, their most prominent leaders, they say it – what do we encounter? A deafening silence.”

But Netanyahu believes there is now someone in the White House who sees the world more like he does, and less like former President Barack Obama. Trump has promised a change in American foreign policy that Netanyahu hopes will bring it more in line with Israel’s security interests.

“I hope it will change. I believe it will change,” he said. “Because I spoke a few days ago to President Trump and he spoke about the Iranian aggression. He spoke about Iran’s commitment to destroy Israel. He spoke about the nature of this nuclear agreement and the danger it poses. We spoke about it together.”

He added that he is troubled by the “new forms and expressions” of hatred against Jews, which shows that “anti-Semitism is alive and well.”