Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech before the joint houses of the American Congress appears not to have had much effect on public opinion, either in Israel or in the US. Polls show little change in party preferences for the upcoming elections in Israel, nor have they shown significant change in the support of the American people for Israel.
This does not mean, however, that nothing is going on in the confrontation between the West and Iran. Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz strongly hinted that Israel’s detailed knowledge of the deal US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian opposite number Javad Zarif are preparing came from the French. Now the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, is saying that the deal as presently constituted does not meet French standards for scope and enforceability. In response, the Obama administration is backtracking, saying that no deal will be signed which limits the scaling-back of the Iranian production of fissile materials for ten or any other specific number of years, and which does not guarantee full cooperation with IAEA inspectors.