President Barack Obama, seeking to sell the Iran nuclear deal to skeptical U.S. lawmakers and nervous allies, insisted on Wednesday the landmark agreement was the only alternative to a nuclear arms race and more war in the Middle East.

“Benjamin Netanyahu’s attitude to Iran is not consistent but rather tainted with an obsessiveness that sabotages Israel’s interests,” write the editors of Ha’aretz.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman tells reporters that Israeli and American experts consulted with each other over the past year.

In a phone conversation between the two leaders Tuesday, Netanyahu did not respond to the offer, said the official, who requested anonymity.

“The agreement demands that Iran must stop enriching high grade uranium, ship out its current stockpiles, end plutonium production, undergo frequent inspections, and all this is tied to the threat of renewed sanctions. Would Iran really violate the deal moments after signing it, only to return to a sanctions regime that they love so much?” asks Uzi Even.

AIPAC called on Congress to reject the Iran nuclear deal, saying it does not meet critical markers that the influential pro-Israel lobby outlined in recent weeks. But the liberal Jewish Middle East lobby J Street announced a multimillion-dollar campaign to support the agreement.

“If Obama manages to keep the deal in place, it will be a major, and potentially very long-term, policy defeat for American hawks,” writes Zack Beauchamp.

Washington is working on a new Security Council resolution making the nuclear deal legally binding on the next president.

President Reuven Rivlin has been mediating between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog in a bid to form a unity government, the Likud and Zionist Union parties were quoted as saying on Thursday.

Pressure by the settler organization “Regavim” and others has led to an Israeli government decision to carry out demolitions in the village even before the High Court hearing into the residents’ petition, scheduled for August 3rd, B’Tselem reports.

“The UN’s Commission of Inquiry report on the 2014 Gaza war has been able to achieve what the Goldstone report could not in 2009: a new gateway for confronting the EU to demand accountability for the devastation of the war,” writes Amjad Iraqi.