Irony is not Benjamin Netanyahu’s strong suit. Israel’s prime minister was in Washington this week to issue another of his apocalyptic warnings about Iran’s nuclear programme. He left at home the crude diagram of an Iranian bomb he had waved aloft at the UN in 2012. Yet this latest theatre offered another reminder that no one has been so diligent as its present leader in disarming the state of Israel.
Unsurprisingly, Mr Netanyahu won warm applause from his Republican friends in the US Congress. House Speaker John Boehner never misses an opportunity to embarrass President Barack Obama. Many Democrats stayed away. What should worry Israelis is that beyond Capitol Hill no one else is listening. The bellicose intransigence that Mr Netanyahu has made his trademark lost him the backing of Europeans long ago. By traducing Mr Obama in the company of Republicans he shattered trust with the White House.
There lies one irony. Mr Netanyahu has stripped himself of credibility. Whatever this Israeli government now says — sensible or otherwise — about the indisputable risks of any nuclear deal with Tehran will be generally discounted as the raving of someone forever set on another Middle East war. A statesman would have made Israel a partner to the six-power talks. Angry shouting from the sidelines has left Mr Netanyahu, well, alone on the sidelines.