Netanyahu to US: Don't Give Iran a Nuclear 'Touchdown'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuing his assault on Iran via US airwaves, imploring Americans not to let Iran score a nuclear "touchdown." "They're in the red zone. They're in the last 20 yards, and you can't let them cross that goal line," he said today on Meet the Press, in forcefully urging the US to draw a "red line. You can't let them score a touchdown because that would have unbelievable consequences, grievous consequences for the peace and security of us all, the whole world."

For as forcefully as he came down on Tehran, however, he tiptoed delicately around the US presidential contest, refusing again and again to take the Obama-vs.-Romney bait. "You're trying to get me into the American election and I'm not going to do that," he told David Gregory. While he denied back Romney's charge that Obama had thrown Israel under the bus" (saying, "There's no bus. The only bus that is really important is the Iranian nuclear bus"), he indicated the two would be equally effective on the Iran front: "I have no doubt that they’re equally committed to preventing that. It’s a vital American interest. We’re united on this across the board." (More Benjamin Netanyahu stories.)