Some Israelis Favor Attacking Iran, Expressing Skepticism About Talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past listed the three main threats facing Israel as “Iran, Iran and Iran.” He has largely staked his career on being Israel’s protector against Iranian nuclear ambitions, has openly confronted the country in recent months and is at war with Iran-backed militias around the region.

Many Israelis were thus surprised when President Trump, with Mr. Netanyahu sitting in a supporting role beside him, announced on Monday that the United States would engage in “direct” negotiations with Iran on Saturday in a last-ditch effort to rein in the country’s nuclear program.

Mr. Trump’s statement was splashed over the front pages of Israel’s major newspapers on Tuesday morning. As the day went on, pundits increasingly weighed in, parsing the pros and cons of the unexpected development.

With Iran’s nuclear program considered to be at its most advanced stage ever, some Israeli experts have suggested that now would be the perfect time to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran’s traditional allies on Israel’s borders — Hezbollah, the Lebanese group, and Syria — are now weakened, and any attack could take advantage of Tehran’s vulnerability after Israeli strikes in the fall took out air defenses around key nuclear sites.

If direct talks take place, they would be the first official face-to-face negotiations between the two countries since Mr. Trump abandoned the Obama-era nuclear accord seven years ago at the urging of Mr. Netanyahu, who had denounced it as a “bad deal.”

Mr. Netanyahu said in the Oval Office on Monday that he and Mr. Trump had discussed Iran and were “united in the goal” of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. If that could be done diplomatically, in an absolute way, he said, “that would be a good thing.”