Let me finish tonight with this.
There are some good signs from Israel. It looks like the president and the prime minister are on the same page. Both agree we can’t let Iran get nuclear weapons. Both agree Iran hasn’t decided yet whether to build them. Both agree that it will take another year to build nuclear weapons once the government in Tehran decides to go in that direction.
I’ve got new hope on a number of grounds: one, the two countries are in agreement; two, this agreement means that the mullahs in Tehran will see the U.S. ready to strike should they decide to build a nuclear bomb. Why? Because there’s no reason for this trip to Israel unless Obama was ready to do just that, to pound out a serious agreement between the two countries.
The people of Israel and the United States are not the only audience for this trip. There—and the best result in this fight is for the other side over in Tehran—to see that we are serious. They build a weapon, we come at them. If they know that now, it could change everything.
Chris Matthews