A prominent Israeli novelist and liberal peace activist describes President Barack Obama's handling of the threat from Iran as "criminal naiveté" and says "[Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu is right" to warn against the deal Obama is attempting to strike with Iran.
The novelist, David Grossman, gave the remarks over the weekend in an interview with an Italian newspaper. Grossman has been a harsh critic of Netanyahu and supporter of Obama.
President Obama has cited Grossman many times in the past. He praised Grossman's views on the peace process in a 2008 interview in the Atlantic, took a Grossman novel on vacation to Martha's Vineyard in 2011, and quoted Grossman in a major 2013 speech in Israel.
Grossman said in his interview that Iran "is an expanding danger in the region which could soon pose a threat not just to Israel but to the entire free world. We need to listen to Netanyahu." Grossman added, "Netanyahu is right when he says that according to the emerging deal there is nothing to prevent the Iranians from developing a nuclear bomb once the deal expires in another 10 years, and on this matter there is no difference in Israel between Left and Right."