John Kerry on Fox News. Photo: Screenshot.

JNS.org – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments on the Iran nuclear agreement were “way over the top” and that Israel is “safer” because of the deal.

“This is under attack by people who really don’t know the terms of the agreement,” Kerry told NBC News.

“What the critics of this plan never offer… is a realistic alternative,” Kerry added, “it’s wrong for people to think this doesn’t have long-term accountability.”

Shortly after the agreement was announced earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu called the deal a “historic mistake” saying that “far-reaching concessions” were made by the world powers to Iran that will lead to Iran receiving “hundreds of billions of dollars with which it can fuel its terror machine and its expansion and aggression throughout the Middle East and across the globe.”

Kerry rejected those comments, saying that Netanyahu “said the same thing about the interim agreement, and he was wrong.”

“Israel is safer,” Kerry said.

President Obama called Netanyahu on Tuesday to talk about the Iran deal, saying that it “will not diminish our concerns regarding Iran’s support for terrorism and threats toward Israel,” according to a description of the call provided by the White House.

The White House announced that Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will travel to Israel next week as a “reflection of the unprecedented level of security cooperation between the United States and Israel.”

Israel also faced criticism from other allies for its response to the deal. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier Germany’s ARD that Israel “needs to take a closer look at it” and should not “criticize the agreement in a very coarse way.”