The speech had everything you’d expect: A solid case against letting Israel’s “genocidal enemies” anywhere near nuclear weapons, a cut and dried rejection of Western rapprochement with Iran, tributes to the unbreakable bond between Israel and the United States, Purim references, Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust, and even Moses. But major surprises there were few.

In his controversial address to a joint meeting of Congress Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not reveal any hitherto unknown details from the nuclear negotiations with Iran, as some had feared. He also did not present the world with a concrete and pragmatic policy proposal outlining how the Islamic Republic’s march toward nuclearization could be stopped, as some had hoped.

US President Barack Obama said “there was nothing new” in the speech. True, that Netanyahu would vehemently oppose the currently discussed deal was as clear as his Iran-North Korea comparison. It is noteworthy, nevertheless, that Netanyahu did not repeat his much-stated position that Iran must not retain any uranium enrichment, a maximalist demand US National Security Advisor Susan Rice Monday called “neither realistic nor achievable.”

Rather, Netanyahu seemed somewhat pragmatic when he hinted that Israel was willing to consider even an imperfect deal, as long as it’s not as imperfect as the one currently on the table.

Netanyahu’s speech was masterly, less because of the abundant rhetorical shtick (such as the awkward line saying the Iran deal would be “a farewell to arms control”) but because he delivered a concise point-by-point argumentation of why the prospective agreement is so bad for Israel and world peace.

Despite the friendly and ostensibly moderate face that the Iranian government puts on for the world, Netanyahu said, at its core, it is still the same murderous, freedom-hating regime that wants to wipe Israel and America off the map.

Read the article in full at Times of Israel.