“The Iranian nuclear threat grabbed center stage at the meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron last week. Jerusalem can chalk this up as a significant achievement. One can assume that the two leaders had a lot of worries on their minds. But Iran is rapidly moving to front and center. It’s not clear if this in itself will prevent Iran from getting the bomb, but it can’t hurt.

Over the weekend, Tehran was cut off from the international money transfer network SWIFT. A tourist in the Isfahan bazaar who wishes to transfer payment to a rug merchant for an expensive Persian rug, for instance, will have to go out of his way to find an alternative method or simply give up on buying the rug. Iranian businesspeople are justifiably feeling the heat. It’s not clear if this will prevent Iran from getting the bomb, but it can’t hurt.”

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