Hmmn... why all the talk in Israel about how the Iran sanctions are starting to bite? Gov't revenues gutted, Iranian currency 'collapsing'... is it possible Obama actually got this one right?
Well, my point all along has been that from Israel's perspective, if you don't trust Obama [and they don't] sanctions are meaningless because they take too long to work and Israel's window of opportunity is short [a short window?] if it's left to act alone. So that dynamic's still in place since even if sanctions are working it's very hard to say when regardless they'll produce the desired results - and then even if the sanctions do produce certain results it's still very hard to say what exactly those results will be - it won't necessarily mean the end of the theocratic regime and the rise of a vague something else we can work with.
But, still, why all the talk about the sanctions supposedly working? If you're Netanyahu and you're still of the opinion that Obama cannot be trusted and there's still a very real possibility that you're going to have to act alone, doesn't it undercut your authority to stoke the idea that the sanctions are indeed working? It seems to me that in order to keep the faith of the population viz the grave risk associated with an attack on Iran that you'd want to play it close to the vest when it came to the sanctions - but they're not. I'm not sure what that means. Maybe a solo attack by Israel never was actually on the table and the tough talk was indeed all bluff. Not sure how to read this one. Can't rule out Obama's gonna shock me here and end up having done something sort of right or at least only half wrong when it comes to foreign policy - still, way too early to say that, lot left to be decided.
