Israel doesn’t want Iran to attain nuclear weapons. No question about that. And there are many good reasons, including:

• The Islamic Republic of Iran is vehemently anti-Israel, and refers to the Jewish state as a “cancer” that must be removed.
• Iran’s theocratic rulers are not bound by the same pragmatism believed to guide other national leaders. In other words, they’ll do what others would deem unimaginable or “crazy.”
• Tehran is already on a quest for regional hegemony, and today effectively controls Lebanon, Yemen and large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Possession of nuclear weapons would only increase these problems exponentially, especially if the mullah’s actually used the bomb against an enemy or enemies.

So why are Israeli leaders across the political spectrum speaking with one voice against a Western-brokered deal that will at the very least delay a deployable Iranian nuclear weapon for the next seven years?

Even if it’s not an ideal agreement, that kind of breathing room could be used to find other ways to terminate the program, or convince Iran to step back from the brink.

Israel Channel 12 military correspondent Nir Dvori explained why Israel is taking such a hard line on the matter:

1. The deal allows Iran to immediately resume the sale of oil to the tune of $100 billion a year. It is naive to think that at least part of that money won’t go to further finance Iranian aggression in other parts of the Middle East, much of that focused on threatening Israel.
2. The deal does not prohibit Iran from continuing to develop other systems related to nuclear weapons, such as precision long-range missiles needed to deliver a future warhead.
3. The deal has an expiration date, with no guarantees that Iran won’t simply pick right back up where it left off.

In other words, while Iran’s nuclear program might temporarily be frozen, Israeli officials and experts say the agreement that US President Joe Biden seems to be endorsing contrary to his own promises will in the meantime result in a far more unstable Middle East.

Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza will enjoy the windfall of Western sanctions on Iran being lifted.

That means Israel will be fighting harder than ever against encirclement by increasingly well-armed foes bent on the Jewish state’s destruction.

The pending nuclear deal fails almost entirely to deal with this problem, which does not impact Israel alone.

Quite the opposite, in fact – it effectively bankrolls a significant advancement of Iran’s quest for regional hegemony and the ultimate destruction of Israel.

Seen another way, Iran has successfully leveraged the threat of becoming a nuclear power to force the West to turn the other way while it threatens Israel and the rest of the Middle East.

And once the deal expires, and Iran’s proxies have grown stronger thanks to their now-cash-rich benefactor, the mullahs will resume enrichment, test a nuclear device, and there will be no turning back.

At that point Western officials will begrudgingly acknowledge that the 2022 nuclear deal wasn’t a good move, just as long after the fact Israeli leaders had to admit that surrendering Gaza perhaps wasn’t the best idea. But by then it’ll be too late.