Benjamin Nethanyahu has arrived in New York where he will address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Most Israelis expect their prime minister to strongly rebuff the sweet overtures made on the same platform last week by Iranian President Hasan Rowhani. The Israeli perceived honey trap culminated in the undoubtedly historic 15 minute telephone conversation at the beginning of the weekend between the Iranian and US presidents.

With the encouragement of Nethanyahu cabinet loyalists such as Yuval Steinitz, Israel's Minister for Strategic Affairs, who is currently at the Assembly in New York, and Gilad Erdan, the Minister for Communications, who accompanied Netanyahu to New York, the Israeli delegation walked out of the General Assembly ahead of Rowhani's speech.

The tone has been set. Unless there is a last minute development Netanyahu will stringently explain to the world that while they are being sweet talked by Iran that country is proceeding at full speed to develop military level nuclear capacity despite Iranian claims to the contrary.

Ari Shavit a highly respected Israeli commentator writing in Haaretz this weekend writes of "the world's great delusion party" and the trendy illusion salesman from Tehran".

"The Munich spirit is in the air."

Other Israeli observers and experts are not quite as sure as Shavit. Uri Lubrani a former Israeli ambassador to Iran suggested over the weekend that Rowhani's statements indicate "some substantial change with a lot of cosmetics". Ido  Nehustan, a former commander of the Israeli Air-force believes the Iranians are master negotiators perfectly capable of playing for time while leaving their western counterparts to believe a breakthrough is just around the corner. Dan Meridor who until quite recently served as Israel's Minister in charge of the country's intelligence agencies asserts that "force will not solve everything. There are some things that cannot be accomplished alone."

Israel's predicament was perhaps best presented by Meir Jabendfer, an expert in Iranian politics at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center. This analyst says there are now people writing in Tehran that Ahmadinejad the warmonger has gone leaving only Nethanyahu who still believes force can resolve issues. "The Iranians now seem like peaceniks while Israel seems to want war."

Between the lines there appears to be some concern in certain circles within Israel that government policy on Iran will leave Israel isolated on the world stage as Europe and the US begin to embrace the overtures from Tehran.

How might Nethanyahu recover some of the high ground for his country in a world that really does not want to be preached to by the Israeli prime minister even if his basic positions make sense.

Netanyahu might adhere to a well known local adage that it is better to be wise than always appear to be right.

Netanyahu could begin by welcoming Rowhani's statements on the holocaust. He might continue by agreeing that there appear to be some winds of change emanating from Tehran. If he wanted to he might point out that Israel has no fundamental quarrel with Iran. On the contrary the Iranian and Jewish people have been tied historically for two and a half millennia. It was the Iranian King Cyrus the Great who released the Jews from captivity in Babylon and encouraged those that wished to return to Israel and Jerusalem to do so. At this point he might suggest that frameworks for discussions between Iran and Israel begin with the hope that Tehran will recognize the Jewish State rather than calling for its destruction which has been its policy since the 1979 revolution. He might explain the realistic concerns of a nation traumatized by the holocaust that when threatened with obliteration it takes such fears seriously.

If the Iranian leadership not just Rowhani but also supreme leader Ali Khameini only seek nuclear capacities similar to say that of Germany (which is having second thoughts) let them demonstrate to the world community that they will take immediate steps to eliminate the concerns over the real purpose of their nuclear programme.

Israel's prime minster can use the podium of the UN General Assembly to suggest benchmarks for achieving the rapid solution to the Iranian nuclear question as proposed by President Rowhani. Iran can begin by a unilateral freeze of its nuclear program while talks are underway. It will reexamine the proposal to deposit it's enriched uranium with an acceptable and capable third party. It will agree to halt further uranium production in Fordow or reduce it to levels commensurate with civilian purposes only.

In that spirit it will shut down its plutonium producing facility at Arak. And at the end of Tuesday's speech he can express a wish to see President Rowhani back at next year's General Assembly smiling sweetly from the podium down on assembled world leaders including Prime-minister Nethanyahu as he politely but proudly lists the achievements as opposed to the intentions of his government in solving the Iranian nuclear issue.

Perhaps his government will have even begun to cooperate with world wide agencies in reigning in terror as a further serious contribution to making the Middle East and the world a little saner and more peaceful.

It might just occur to Nethanyahu that by making such an approach on Tuesday at the United Nations he could take to heart remarks by his role model Winston Churchill: "An optimist  sees an opportunity in every calamity;  a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity."

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