Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the US Congress is scheduled for March 3. The fate of the P5+1 nuclear negotiations with Iran will supposedly be determined by the end of March, a timetable that justifies the problematic timing of the prime minister’s speech. The emphasis is on “supposedly,” because no development is likely to occur in March or April or even May or for that matter by the end of June that justifies turning the members of Congress into a cheerleading squad at a Likud Party election rally.

Proof of this can be found in the Feb. 9 State Department daily briefing by spokeswoman Jen Psaki: “Our goal here is to come to an agreement on a political framework by the end of March.” She also said, “The extension is through the end of June.” Psaki's statement implies that the world powers are seeking to bring the negotiations with Iran to a close by the end of March, but that the expected final date (as envisioned today) would probably be the end of June.

This has happened before. In the Vienna round of talks, March 1 was designated as the deadline for an agreement, after which that was postponed to March 24. Now it has been apparently extended until the end of the month. The truly crucial date, however, is March 17 — the day of the Israeli elections.

Placing the Iranian issue at the top of the agenda through Netanyahu’s performance in Congress is a recipe for increasing the number of Likud Party voters. If the P5+1 and Iran are on their way to an agreement, which has been called a “bad agreement” by most Israeli politicians on the right, left and center, then the people need a strong and experienced leader like Bibi. Only he can stop the Iranians by recklessly brushing aside a naive American president. In an emergency, the Likud propagandists will argue, Israel cannot afford a new prime minister, one who believes the Arabs and is afraid of the Americans.