|http://lobelog.com/us-hawks-ignore-top-israeli-official-on-iran/#more-32769

US Hawks Ignore Top Israeli Official on Iran

by Ali Gharib
Last week, Israel’s top military official made some staggering comments during the course of a security conference in Tel Aviv. Here’s how The Forward‘s JJ Goldberg reported the comments of Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, Israel’s chief of staff, which seem as of yet to be unavailable in a full English translation from the original Hebrew:

Eisenkot said there were two “existential threats” to Israel, and both are currently “declining.” One was the threat of nonconventional weaponry, including both Iran’s nuclear program and Syrian chemical weapons…
First, he said Israel faces no existential threats right now, because Obama’s Iran nuclear deal has removed the greatest threat to Israel’s existence…
As for the Iranian nuclear agreement, he said it is “a strategic turning point” that includes “many risks but also opportunities.”

These comments should be unremarkable, since Israel’s security establishment has long given support, if cautious support, to diplomacy with Iran and the accord reached as a result. But Eisenkot’s remarks are still worth pointing out because of the sad state of affairs in the American discourse about Iran.
The Silence of the Hawks http://lobelog.com/us-hawks-ignore-top-israeli-official-on-iran/#more-32769