Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, discussed the Iranian nuclear issue on CNN‘s State of the Union Sunday, and explained that Iran is a threat not just to Israel, but to the entire region and the world.

“What is interesting,” he noted, “is that Israelis and Arabs are on exactly the same page when it comes to the Iranian issue. When Israelis and Arabs are on the same page, people should pay attention. Because that happens about once a century.”

Asked about the politics behind Netanyahu’s speech, Dermer said that the invitation to address Congress was House Speaker John Boehner’s idea. “It was Speaker Boehner who called me,” he explained, “and I assumed that he was going to inform the White House. He did, but he did so only a couple hours before [the invitation was announced].”

Dermer dodged the interviewer’s question regarding the fact that Netanyahu did not demand that the number of Iranian centrifuges be brought to “zero,” as he did on previous occasions. He said that Israel is “not in the negotiating room” but what Netanyahu said was that Iran must be left with less infrastructure and that the lifting of sanctions must be conditional on a change in Iran’s behavior.