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March 9th, 2021 
Awake Goy A retired Israeli major general just published an extraordinary opinion piece endorsing the Iran nuclear deal — and if the Jerusalem correspondents for the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets do their job his article could profoundly change the terms of the debate.
Major General Yair Golan was the deputy chief of the general staff of the Israeli army when the Iran deal was first announced, and here’s what he wrote the other day in the Washington Post:
It may come as a surprise to some, but when former president Barack Obama unveiled the terms of the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, key leaders in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) let out a long-held sigh of relief.
I know. I was there.
The New York Times Jerusalem bureau and other U.S. mainstream reporters in Israel should not have waited to even finish General Golan’s article before jumping into action, contacting their sources inside the Israeli military to ask about his assertions that the original deal was “well-designed” and that it would become a “vital. . . tool. . . in preventing the existential threat of a nuclear Iran.”
Golan went on:
. . . Obama’s Iran deal remains the only proven method for halting Iran’s nuclear capabilities, dismantling its facilities and reducing its stockpiles.
The U.S. reporters in Israel should already be looking more deeply into Golan’s charge that Benjamin Netanyahu disagreed with “the original opinion of most in the Israeli security establishment” and opposed the Obama agreement because he saw it “as a threat to his legitimacy.” Netanyahu, Golan explains, had “long sought to present himself to voters as an uncompromising security hardliner.” Netanyahu is surely even more desperate to maintain his hawkish image as he contests Israel’s fourth election in two years on March 23, with the added incentive that he could end up in prison if he loses.
And U.S. mainstream reporters should find out what Israel’s military insiders think of another of General Golan’s charges, that Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal in 2018 “has not made Israel safer.”
Just for the record, during Major General Yair Golan’s active career he was not an obscure figure. Here’s Haaretz’s respected military correspondent, Amos Harel, explaining back in 2013 why Golan was “charismatic and a bit old-fashioned.” And Golan spoke out before, in 2016 while he was still on active duty, saying there were “revolting trends” in Israel that reminded him of Nazi Germany and Europe in the 1930s.
Good. So any day now, we can expect long articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and reports on CNN and the PBS News Hour, that look squarely at Major General Golan’s pro-Iran deal views.
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