Netanyahu to Congress: ‘This is a very bad deal — We’re better off without it’

During a speech marked by enthusiastic applause from both Democrats and Republicans in a joint session of Congress, Netanyahu was in the unique position to brief members of Congress about details of the nuclear deal that President Obama has kept close to the vest.

“This deal won’t be a farewell to arms,” he said. “It will be a farewell to arms control.”

“We’ve been told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal, it’s a very bad deal — we’re better off without it,” he said. “… The alternatives to this bad deal is a much better deal.”

Secretary of State John Kerry warned Netanyahu not to detail sensitive information about the talks. Netanyahu declined to talk specific numbers but stressed that the thousands of centrifuges the agreement would allow Iran to keep in place would be a dangerous development.

Leaving that infrastructure in place could have disastrous results, Netanyahu argued, because the centrifuges can be turned back to produce a nuclear weapon once the deal sunsets in 2025.

“We can insist that restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program not be lifted for as long as Iran continues its aggression in the region and the world,” he said.

In order for Iran to receive the international community’s trust, it must do three things, Netanyahu argued: stop its aggression with neighbors in the Middle East, stop supporting terrorism around the world and stop threatening to annihilate Israel.

“If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country,” he said.

“Iran’s program can be held back well beyond the current proposal by insisting on a better deal and keeping up the pressure on this vulnerable regime especially given the recent collapse of the price of oil,” he added.

“If Iran threatens to walk away from the table…call their bluff,” he said. “They’ll be back because they need the deal more than you do.”

More than two dozen Democrats, including Vice President Joe Biden, chose to skip the speech, protesting the process in which it came about. Earlier this year Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, invited Netanyahu to speak to Congress on Iran and didn’t alert the White House or get its blessing.

At least one of those Democrats, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., reversed his decision skip and to attended the speech under pressure from the many Jewish constituents in his upper Manhattan district.

“I still don’t agree w/procedure & politics behind Bibi’s speech but at request of constituents & friends I’ve decided to attend,” Rangel tweeted Tuesday morning.

Netanyahu began the speech by trying to reach out to Democrats and tamp down some of the tensions.

He gave a special shout-out to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., saying he was glad to see him back on his feet after suffering a major injury over the winter break.

“It’s proof you can’t keep a good man down,” he said, referring to Reid as a friend of Israel.

At that point, Reid stood up and his colleagues gave him a standing ovation.

The Israeli leader than tried to smooth over the partisan divisions surrounding the address.

“I know that my speech has been the subject of much controversy. I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political – that was never my intention,” he said. 

The U.S.-Israeli relationship, he said, has “always been above politics and must always remain above politics.

He also spent several minutes thanking Obama and Congress for their strong support over the years, especially for sending more money last summer during a wave of rocket attacks from Hamas.  

“We were protected last summer because this Capitol dome helped build our Iron Dome,” he said.

Newsmakers spotted in the upper gallery included: business magnate and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, former Speaker Newt Gingrich and his wife Calista, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard (a sister publication of the Washington Examiner.)

Despite the weeks of controversy surrounding the speech, most members of Congress welcomed Netanyahu with overwhelming support, giving him several standing ovations during the address and applauding wildly when Netanyahu vowed to defend Israel’s sovereignty and never again give in to aggression.

Several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Rangel, who showed up for the speech were more tepid in their response.

Netanyahu also took issue with the Obama administration’s goal of scaling back Iran’s ability to make a nuclear weapon to one year. The current estimated number of centrifuges the deal will allow is 6,500 and experts say that would give Tehran a breakout window even shorter than the administration’s one-year goal.

Robert Einhorn, the former Obama point man on Iran negotiations who now serves as a senior fellow with the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative at the Brookings Institution, last year calculated that 6,000 centrifuges combined with low-enriched uranium would produce at best a 6- to 12-month breakout window.

Pro-Israeli groups have pointed out that the Obama administration at the start of the talks had previously insisted that Iran meet its obligations and fully suspend its uranium enrichment program so Tehran couldn’t simply turn the program back on at any time.

White House spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan in December 2013 said strictly limiting the uranium enrichment program was the goal at the time.

“We are prepared to negotiate a strictly limited enrichment program in the end state, but only because the Iranians have indicated for the first time in a public document that they are prepared to accept rigorous monitoring and limits on level, scope, capacity and stockpiles,” she said.

In a speech to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee conference on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and National Security Adviser Susan Rice tried to head off Netanyahu’s criticism by emphasizing that the administration has provided Israel with $20 billion in military aid during his tenure and didn’t flinch when Israeli asked for more during a series of rocket attacks last year.

But AIPAC attendees were critical when Rice talked about the sunset provisions and the goal of imposing a one-year breakout window.

For instance, when she said the only alternative to negotiations was to keep sanctions in place and launch a bombing campaign, AIPAC members applauded.

Kerry last week also tried to question Netanyahu’s judgment arguing that he often gets his facts wrong and wrongly supported the Iraq war in 2002.

Obama and his top spokesman, Josh Earnest, over the last week also have argued that Netanyahu’s initial claims about the interim agreement providing tens of billions of dollars in sanctions relief turned out not to be true.