Haaretz, Apr. 10, 2016

Yet lo and behold, here’s what has happened since then, according to a senior defense official: Iranian payments to Hezbollah and Hamas haven’t grown, even though that famous $100 billion the Iranians were to get was unfrozen back in January. Iran is honoring the agreement, and its nuclear program has been set back; in other words, even if the Iranians were to blatantly violate the agreement, it would take them, according to our own defense establishment, more time to obtain the bomb than it would have taken them had the agreement not been signed.

[...] Granted, it’s still too early to declare the agreement a success (I, too, have to cover my rear). But one claim made by the agreement’s critics really drives me wild. The agreement, they say, gives us a lull of 10 to 15 years, but after that, Iran will be able to obtain the bomb with ease. So a country that invested billions of dollars, time and all its available diplomatic capital in creating a military option which, in the best case, would have postponed the bomb’s development by three years is thumbing its nose at 10 to 15 years.