“But there is something else that goes without saying, but still needs to be said loudly: We, America, are not just hired lawyers negotiating a deal for Israel and the Sunni Gulf Arabs, which they alone get the final say on. We, America, have our own interests in not only seeing Iran’s nuclear weapons capability curtailed, but in ending the 34-year-old Iran-U.S. cold war, which has harmed our interests and those of our Israeli and Arab friends. Hence, we must not be reluctant about articulating and asserting our interests in the face of Israeli and Arab efforts to block a deal that we think would be good for us and them………. . Some of our allies don’t share those “other” interests and believe the only acceptable outcome is bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities and keeping Iran an isolated, weak, pariah state…………”

Friedman is going peacenik about Iran. He says: “Some of our allies don’t share those “other” interests and believe the only acceptable outcome is bombing……”
No wonder some Iranians have come to believe that some of their neighbors are almost serial back-stabbers. They did it in the 1980s, when they threw their money and media and weapons behind Saddam Hussein’s invasion of southwestern Iran. When that one failed, Saddam did his own backstabbing: he turned his guns south against the Gulf. The Americans deployed and saved the day in 1990/91.
The potentates tried again to push for war a few years ago (remember the Wikileaks revelations?). They have been trying since then. A version of history is being repeated here, perhaps with Ben Netanyahu replacing Saddam as the instrument. They have come a long way from the Saddam Fan Club to the Ben Netanyahu Fan Club.

Cheers
mhg