Many in Congress and in the American Jewish community are opposed to the agreement reached among the United States, its P5+1 international partners, and Iran. Indeed, for American Jews, this issue is becoming a litmus test for one’s support for Israel. This is regrettable. We believe such opposition is misplaced, mired in the past, and is missing an opportunity to shape a more hopeful future.
The Obama administration, and particularly Secretary Kerry and his team, should be applauded for the hard bargains and tenaciousness that they demonstrated in reaching this agreement. This deal opens myriad possibilities for the Middle East, for Israel, and for the United States. For the first time in a long time, a country headed toward nuclear weapon capability has been stopped in that pursuit.
Among other things, this deal provides over a decade of delay in Iran’s nuclear program and will extend the breakout time to produce a bomb to at least a year, far longer than the current two to three months. It provides monitoring of both declared and suspected nuclear facilities. If Iran does not meet its obligations, it will suffer severe consequences. Indeed, the military option could then be utilized by any of the signatories to the agreement or by others. And Iran’s activities, whether in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, or elsewhere, can be confronted without hesitation. Who knows, perhaps the communication channel opened through these negotiations between Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Minister Zarif, might be exploited to address other challenges. Undoubtedly, this agreement will not end all of Iran’s nefarious activities but it was never intended to address them all. There will no doubt be other challenges ahead.
In light of the above, it might be preferable for the opponents to consider a different strategy. Perhaps Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should begin discussions with the Obama administration about what the two governments can do together to ensure Iranian compliance with its obligations under the agreement, what can be done if they do not comply, and how best to jointly oppose bad behavior in the region on the part of Iran. Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog, who also opposes the agreement, has demonstrated wisdom in this regard in stating that he would travel to Washington to seek more security assurances for Israel. We have no doubt President Obama will listen carefully to those requests. In his commentary in the Israeli press, former IDF Major-General Yisrael Ziv, no stranger to security considerations, underscored the importance of Israel rehabilitating its relationship with the United States in order to coordinate responses to problematic Iranian actions. This sentiment has been echoed by Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli Air Force general, who suggested that, in addition to preparing for dangers that might be posed by the agreement, there should be an effort on the part of Israel to work with its allies, first and foremost of which is the United States.
Most important, the focus should now turn not only to ensuring Iranian compliance of its obligations under the deal but also to fight the other dangers, such as terrorism, regional destabilization, and threats to Israel and US citizens being held in Iran. It should be done so by encouraging the international community to fight those dangers with the same persistence and unity as they did the nuclear threat.
The agreement comes with undeniable risks, but it provides the possibility of a better future and demonstrates that diplomacy can indeed produce meaningful results. We should focus on ensuring that that better future is realized so as to provide a new and more peaceful era for all the nations of the world.
This article was originally published in the Boston Globe on July 17, 2015
360 Responses
Given that the Iranians have every reason to want a nuclear deterrent against a US attack (see Iraq) I doubt that anything will really deter them from seeking to develop one sooner or later (and probably sooner). Nor do I blame them for doing so. But the administration’s claims as to what has been accomplished [which you summarize as
“this deal provides over a decade of delay in Iran’s nuclear program and will extend the breakout time to produce a bomb to at least a year, far longer than the current two to three months. It provides monitoring of both declared and suspected nuclear facilities. If Iran does not meet its obligations, it will suffer severe consequences”] are very dubious and virtually every one of these claims has been challenged as not supportable by the actual agreement. And even in a best case scenario Iran will have nuclear weapons within 15-20 years so at very best the agreement won’t achieve the aims set out by Obama when the negotiations started.
No one can predict whether the Iran deal will in the next 10 years will be better than no deal from a nuclear viewpoint or even whether if turned down will force iran to renegotiate a better deal. But we know one thing for certain—as sanctions are lifted and billions of dollars pour into iran, it is undoubtedly apparent that the current regime will use its more available funds funds to sponsor terrorism tn the region and throughout the world. For example, it was recently reported that new tunnels have been built into israel with iran funding. As the country of iran become more and more economically empowered they will do more and more to increase their presence in the region and throughout the world through terrorism, propaganda and other means. In 5-15 years, this will make the world even more dangerous than today.
Since 1979, the rulers in Teheran continuously and repeatedly have promoted terrorism directly and indirectly against the West and particularly against Israel and the United States. I need not recite the body counts of Westerners, Americans, American soldiers, Israeli civilians and soldiers to make my point. Chants of death to America and death to Israel and threats to wipe Israel off of the map are dismissed by the Obama Administration and whitewashed by those in the liberal community who anguish at the thought there might need to be a military confrontation with Iran in order to avoid a nuclear catastrophe in the Mideast. Those in the Jewish community who support the current “deal” are looking at the world through rose-colored glasses and are ignoring the lessons of history. Just as Hitler was not appeased by Chamberlain and Daladier’s capitulation at Munich, the mullahs in Iran will not change course based upon this deal. They view the US and the liberals in it with scorn and contempt.
The deal, rather than reducing the prospect of war, makes war much more likely. The fact that so many of my fellow Jews are so deluded upsetting. Unfortunately, it is not shocking given that the Jews are a “stiff necked people” whose inability to be unified has led to catastrophe upon catastrophe.
Yes. This is the best deal that can possibly be obtained. But the world is worse off than without. Its of little consequence whether Iran obtains nuclear weapons in 12 months or 10 years. Iran is imperialistic, and acts genocidally against groups/ peoples it doesn’t like. Israel is firmly in its cross, and the billions of dollars pumped into the Iranian economy, only makes war, and Israel’s destruction more likely.
i want to thank your organization for speaking up about the Iran negotions. Bottom line is that nobody would attack another country that has over 200 nuclear bombs.
Iraq had none. Google “netanyahoo speaking to congress in 2002 “. If I had lost a son in that war, I would come through the TV after him.
You applaud the Obama administration and John Kerry for their “hard bargain and tenaciousness”?! Why just today it was reported by AP and printed in Israel’s liberal Ha’aretz, that Iran will be allowed to collect their own test samples and deliver them to the IAEA. Hard bargaining and tenaciousness, indeed. How ironic that while the vast majority of Israelis oppose and fear this porous deal which threatens the destruction of Israel, your organization would encourage American Jews to support it. Shame on you, my American brothers and sisters!