Obama: If Israel attacked, US will protect it

When it is put to Obama that Netanyahu has “injected himself forcefully” into the debate in Washington over the deal, Obama says, “right.”

Is this appropriate, he’s asked? “I’ll let you ask Prime Minister Netanyahu that question if he gives you an interview,” he says, then adds: “I don’t recall a similar example.”

He says the US-Israel relationship is deep and profound, and that “our commitment to Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is something that I take very seriously.”

“We’ve provided more military assistance to Israel than any other previous administration,” he adds.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses US Jews on the Iran nuclear deal in a live webcast, Tuesday, August 4, 2015 (screen capture)

He adds: “On the substance, the prime minister is wrong on this. I think that I can show that the basic assumptions that he’s made are incorrect.”

And “if in fact my argument is right, that this is the best way for Iran not to get a nuclear weapon, then that’s not just good for the United States. That is very good for Israel.”

He says that the key question is whether there is “a better path to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon than this one.”

And he goes on: “I’ve repeatedly asked both Prime Minister Netanyahu and others to present a reasonable, realistic plan that would achieve exactly what this deal achieves, and I have yet to get a response.”

Obama says “I completely understand why both he and the broad Israeli public would be suspicious, cautious about entering any deal with Iran.” But arms treaties the US signed with the former Soviet Union were “much more severe,” he notes.

“They had missiles pointed at every single major American city… We actually had to constrain ourselves and reduce our firepower.”

With this deal, the US is “preserving all our options.”

“If Israel were attacked by Iran, for example, there’s no doubt that not just me but every US administration would do everything that we needed to do to make sure that Israel was protected,” he vows.

But if Iran abides by the deal, “then we have purchased at a very small price one of the single most important national security objectives that both the United States and Israel have.”