With headlines in Israel’s most-read news website, Ynet, on Friday screaming that a deal with Iran may be near, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has taken his campaign against the deal to social media.

Netanyahu, whose office maintains Twitter and Facebook accounts in English, used both to warn of what he believes are the dire consequences of any deal with Tehran over its nuclear program.

A series of tweets over the past day sets out Netanyahu’s position: the best option for the 5+1 powers is to increase sanctions so that the Islamic Republic will capitulate over its nuclear program. A deal now, in Netanyahu’s opinion, would be a disaster, and a pointless disaster at that, given that the West has the upper hand because of sanctions.

 

 

Netanyahu told a group of Jewish youths on Thursday:

 

The Prime Minister added, though these comments are not recorded on Twitter, “”People say: ‘If we don’t strike this bad deal with Iran, Iran will walk away from the deal.’ Well, I have news for you. They’re not going to walk away from this deal. It’s a dream deal for them… But I guarantee you one thing. Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons.”

And on Friday, Prime Minister repeated his position that Tehran already has the facilities to build a nuclear weapon:

 

 

The Prime Minister has also launched a campaign on Facebook, calling on the West not to allow the deal with Iran. Using an infographic, “Don’t Rush Into a Bad Deal with Iran!”, Netanyahu warns that the current proposal by the 5+1 powers will allow Iran to keep its nuclear program, and develop long-range weapons capable of targeting the U.S. and Europe.

554172_10151748697062076_403127224_n

Meanwhile, in this weekend’s edition of Haaretz, Israel’s leading — well, only — left of center news outlet, columnist Yoel Markus set out why some Israelis support Netanyahu’s position:

If Bibi enters history , it will not be because of achieving peace with the Palestinians, but because the world employed him in something greater: to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. As the Prime Minister of a country, which, according to foreign reports has nuclear weapons at the ready, it took a lot of audacity to declare war on Iran ‘s deadly weapon. But unlike the presumed intentions of Iran, the Jewish state was established after a Shoah (Holocaust) unprecedented in the world, and has designated the deadly weapon only in the case of a “Doomsday” i.e. the threat of a second Holocaust. The generations who grew up here after the establishment of Israel no longer remember that our neighbors openly threatened to destroy Israel immediately after its establishment. Oil-rich countries like Iraq and Iran tried to realize these threats by producing a long-term lethal weapon. Already in Ben-Gurion’s days it was decided that Israel should have this sophisticated defense weapon to survive in a hostile environment that does not hide its intention to destroy it.

It is no coincidence that in the Yom Kippur War, Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan thought to prepare for a doomsday weapon. Imagine what would happen if these intentions were realized. Where would we stand today? The America of President Lyndon Johnson understood why we have what we have, but gained the promise… that we will not use it. When Israel bombed the nuclear reactor in Iraq, in Menachem Begin’s time, there was an outcry in America. But it was President Reagan who reminded people, in an impressive public appearance, of the trauma of the Holocaust, and defended Israel’s right to defend itself. Iraq later took revenge by launching 39 Scud missiles at the heart of the Israeli home front. Public panic because of these little missiles, only emphasized the need to avoid at all costs hostile nuclear weapons, which it would not to hesitate to use against Israel.