Netanyahu's Congrats Message to Think Tank Turns Into Dire Iran Warning

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a televised address Saturday billed as a message of congratulations to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank on its 30-year anniversary, but spent most of it urging the world community to reject the Lausanne framework intended to create agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

“There are those who say the Lausanne framework [agreement] will make Israel safer,” Netanyahu says in this video. “As the prime minister of Israel, I can tell you categorically this deal will endanger Israel – big time.” Netanyahu’s address was likely a response to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s multi-part interview on Israeli TV, some of which was broadcast Saturday. In the course of the interview, Kerry said “there is a lot of hysteria” in the criticism of the Lausanne deal, and that he believed it would make Israel safer.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy has been criticized by both sides of the Israeli-Arab conflict, but perhaps most strongly by academics and policymakers accusing it of a pro-Israeli bias. The institute was founded by Martin Indyk, a former senior official with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, one of the most significant pro-Israel lobby groups. Credit: YouTube/IsraeliPM