Analysis: No Iran deal would have satisfied Israel

By Hagai M. Segal, academic and analyst on Middle East affairs .

This isn’t just about the nuclear issue.

While Israel obviously has significant concerns about the Iranian nuclear, no deal that would have been done would have been satisfactory to this government.

A deal done purely over the nuclear issue is one of Israel’s nightmare scenarios because the threat that Iran poses to Israel is hegemonic. Israel fears an Iran that seeks to enforce its will and agenda across the broader Middle East.

What the nuclear issue did was unite the world in limiting Iran’s capabilities and ambitions. With a deal done over the nuclear issue, all the pressure is taken off Iran, without any of Israel’s other concerns being addressed.

Iran, with the pressure off, will now be free to go back to arming Hezbollah and Hamas, and getting deeply involved in Iraq and Syria, on a much greater scale than it has been able to do in recent years, because it has been so constrained by the sanctions.

So Israel’s huge concern is that one issue gets resolved but that the shackles are removed from Iran, meaning that once again Iran can return to being a highly active and aggressive actor against Israel’s interests in the region.