Even as the Geneva talks on Iran's nuclear program were underway, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the deal diplomats were working to achieve. It would be, he said, the "deal of the century" for Iran but "a very bad deal" for other countries.

 

An agreement did not come out of last week's talks. But when the participants resume negotiations later this month, they should keep one thing in mind: Not all Israelis are as alarmed about a potential deal as Netanyahu. Indeed, some see potential for a final nuclear deal that would protect Israeli security while allowing for limited enrichment activity in Iran.

 

 Israel's security elite nearly unanimously agrees that an Iranian nuclear weapon would be detrimental to Israeli and regional stability. Despite some fissures within the security establishment about whether Iran poses an existential threat (and disagreements about the merits of a unilateral Israeli military strike), Israeli experts across the spectrum believe a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to dangerous military escalations, embolden Hezbollah and other Iranian allies, and potentially set off further nuclear proliferation in the region.