Veterans warn Benjamin Netanyahu speech on Iran will backfire

Benjamin Netanyahu's claim to represent all Israelis in his "fateful mission" has been criticised. Photo / AP

Hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set off for Washington, a group of 180 retired Israeli generals and former top security officials warned that his address to a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow on Iran's nuclear programme will cause more harm than good.

It will not only damage Israel's special relationship with the United States, but also undermine military and intelligence ties, they said.

Rather than slowing down Iran's nuclear project, the former security officials said, Netanyahu's speech will bring the Islamic republic closer to developing a nuclear bomb.

"When the Israeli Prime Minister argues that his speech will stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, he is not only misleading Israel - he is strengthening Iran," said Amnon Reshef, former head of the army's armoured corps.

Reshef is a founder of Commanders for Israel's Security, an organisation of 200 retired and reserve senior officers from the Israel Defence Forces, the Mossad secret service, the Shin Bet domestic security agency and the national police force.

The organisation, which claims to be apolitical, was created last year to push Netanyahu forward on a regional peace agreement aimed at ending the conflict with the Palestinians.

It is not certain how many members of Israel's defence and intelligence establishment oppose the speech. Members of the group said they shared Netanyahu's fears about Tehran's nuclear project and the pending deal to freeze and monitor the Iranian programme. But they said Netanyahu was making a mistake to confront US President Barack Obama in a speech before Congress.

Amiram Levin, another ex-commander and a former deputy chief of Mossad, said that Netanyahu was playing into the hands of Iran's hardline clerics. "The American people see the rift between Israel and the US Administration. The Israeli public sees it, and, more importantly, the mullahs in Iran see it. Iran wants Netanyahu's speech. They understand that it will weaken Israel's bipartisan bond with the US," Levin said.

Netanyahu's party, Likud, responded to the criticism: "This is a recycled version of the same generals - leftists who promised peace in Oslo, supported the disengagement [from Gaza], supported the Arab Peace Initiative based on dividing Jerusalem, and promoted withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights."

Judea and Samaria are the biblical names for today's occupied West Bank.

The Israeli Prime Minister has warned that the accord being formulated is a bad deal that will allow the Iranian regime to become a nuclear state, posing an existential threat to Israel.

Netanyahu called his trip to Washington "a fateful, even historic mission" that he is undertaking as "the emissary of all Israelis, even those who disagree with me, of the entire Jewish people". Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein knocked Netanyahu for suggesting that he represents all Jewish people on the topic of Iran.

"He doesn't speak for me on this," Feinstein said. "I think it's a rather arrogant statement. I think the Jewish community is like any other community. There are different points of view. I think that arrogance does not befit Israel, candidly."

Secretary of State John Kerry sought to play down the tensions around the speech. He said: "The Prime Minister is welcome in the US at any time. We have an unparalleled close security relationship with Israel, and we will continue to." Kerry conceded that the invitation by Republican House Speaker John Boehne had caught the Administration by surprise. "We don't want to see this turned into some great political football," he said.

- Washington Post-Bloomberg