The more one knows about the Iran Deal, the more obvious it becomes that it is not a deal so much as it is a fraud. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of a fraud is “something that is meant to look like the real thing in order to trick people.” That precisely describes the Iran Deal. Virtually every claim made for it is either not true or insignificant.
- There are no “anytime, anywhere” inspections, as Americans were promised during the negotiations.
- No American or Canadian inspectors will be allowed into Iran.
- The agreement obligates all the parties, including the United States, to help Iran protect its nuclear facilities against an attack, whether physical or cyber.
- Any area of Iran that the Iranian regime designates “military” cannot be inspected.
- Iran can object to any inspection and delay it at least 24 days, and, according to the Wall Street Journal, up to three months.
- The deal will free a hundred billion dollars and eventually much more for the Iranian regime to use to bolster Iran’s economy and to supply terror groups around the world.
In light of these weaknesses, any one of which renders the deal fraudulent, how could anyone who cares about America, not to mention Israel, support it?
And it gets worse: There are two secret side deals to the agreement made between Iran and the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). They are not just kept secret from you and me. They are kept secret from the president, the secretary of state (who admitted to Congress that he has not seen them), and the Congress of the United States.
How then could any member of Congress vote to affirm an agreement with Iran, crucial parts of which they cannot even know about? Why do those secrets between Iran and the United Nations simply not invalidate this agreement?
But I wish to focus on American Jews. How is it, in light of the above and in light of Iran’s stated aim of annihilating Israel, that so many American Jews — despite the opposition of so many national Jewish groups and even of the Jewish Federations of liberal cities such Boston and Los Angeles — support this deal?
The question is legitimate for four reasons:
First, and most obvious, Israel is the one Jewish state, and one would assume that American Jews have a moral and emotional commitment to Israel’s welfare, not to mention survival.
Second, according to various polls, American Jews may be the ethnic or religious group most supportive of the deal. How is that possible?
Third, the vast majority of Israeli Jews oppose the deal. According to Israel’s major left-wing newspaper, Haaretz, only one in ten Israelis support the deal. Yet, at least 50 percent of American Jews support it. Why the five-to-one discrepancy?
Fourth, even most left-wing Israelis oppose the deal. As Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported: “The Iran deal represents one of those rare issues that has unified Israelis of most political parties.” That includes the opposition leader, the head of the Labor Party, Isaac Herzog. Goldberg writes: “‘Iran,’ Herzog told me, has Israelis — of the ‘left, center, and right,’ he said — ‘frightened.’”
So, then, in light of the deal’s terrible defects, in light of the specific concerns of Jews, and in light of the nearly universal opposition to the deal among Israeli Jews, why do half of America’s Jews support it?
One answer, given by many American Jewish supporters of the deal, is that they back the deal precisely because they do care about Israel. And when American Jews with a record of strong support of Israel say this, I believe them.
But I do have a question: If the deal is good for Israel, why do only one in ten Israelis support it? How can Jews living in Los Angeles or New York tell 90 percent of Israelis that they know better what’s good for Israel? That’s what Jews call chutzpah.
As for American Jews who don’t have a strong record of support of Israel, I do not believe them when they say that they believe the deal is good for Israel.
Here’s why: If a Republican president had negotiated this deal, Democrats would now be strongly opposing it — along with most Republicans. But a Republican president would never have negotiated a deal that so weakens America’s position in the Middle East and puts Israel in such peril. Also, both Republicans and Democrats would have — correctly — opposed a president of the United States negotiating what is in fact a treaty without Congress’s approval.
So why do so many American Jews support the deal? Because they 1) are loyal to President Obama 2) have an intense dislike of Israeli prime-minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 3) have an intense dislike of Republicans.
In addition, both Jews and non-Jews often forget that Israel is no longer important to an increasing number of American Jews. Jews are the most left-wing ethnic and religious group in America — in part because Jews are more secular than others and attend college in greater numbers — and the more that people embrace a left-wing view of the world, the more hostile to Israel they are likely to become.
There are, therefore, quite a number of American Jews who support the Iran deal for reasons having nothing to do with Israel. They only care about America, they say, and the deal is good for America. One presumes that most of these people also believe that pulling all our troops out of Iraq was good for America. It wasn’t. These Jews and non-Jews believe that the answer to evil is negotiation, not confrontation. That there is no historical basis for that belief does not disturb them. These people are still singing, “Give Peace a Chance.”
So, why do many American Jews — including some supporters of Israel — back the Iran deal? For the same reason the minority of American non-Jews who support the deal do: their outlook on life has been shaped by the Left.
Again, I would like more people to read my open letter to Obama:
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David Lloyd ben Yaacov Yehuda Klepper, Yeshivat Beit Orot, Shmuel ben Adiya 1, Mt. of Olives, Jerusalem 97400 ISRAEL
14 Elul 5775, 29 August 2015 Email: daveklepper@yahoo.com 29.08.15, ??’ ???? ???”?
Memo to President Barack Obama regarding talk to USA Jews 27 August
.1. American Jews are just as concerned as other Americans about USA Security
Your talk discussed USA – Israel relations and did you did not discuss the effect of the agreement on USA security. I assure you that USA Jews (including those now living in Israel, Judea, and Samaria) are as concerned about USA security as other Americans. You have stated that you expect Iran to be a stabilizing force in the Middle East. But the mentality of the Ayatollas that run Iran is identical in every respect to the terrorists that flew the planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Their comments to their own people prove this. They have stated a willingness to sacrifice a good portion of their own population to further their aims of regional and eventual world domination. The “agreement” can easily allow the bomb to proceed secretly, and their form of Islam specifically permits braking agreements in the interest of furthering their form of Islam. Even if they should magnanimously release the four USA hostages, the agreement is a surrender, and money released is already on its way to produce further terror and the purchase of long-range weapons that can target America. They continue to label the USA as the “Great Satan” and teach their children hatred of America.
.2. Israel must insure its own security
Israel has never required or asked for USA servicemen to risk their lives in defense of Israel. Your assurances of aid to Israel if attacked by Iran might be believed if:
On your first visit to Israel prior to success in the year 2008 election, after seeing the results of Hamas rockets in Sidom, you had stated that Arab refusal to tolerate a Jewish state in their midst was the main block to peace, not the “settlers” or “settlements.” Dayyenu!
Immediately on taking office you had reviewed the files on Shalom Rubashken and Jonathan Pollard, and concluded that their sentencing reflected anti-Semitism and not real justice, and granted the long-overdue Presidential Pardons. Dayyenu!
When speaking in Cairo, instead of inflaming Arab sensibilities by pointing out a justification for the State of Israel based on Jewish suffering and losses in the Holocaust, you had instead pointed to the justification for the State of Israel in the Koran, the invitation by Muslims for 70 Jewish families to return to Jerusalem after the European Crusaders were expelled, the Caliph of Jerusalem going to the Jaffa dock to welcome Jewish refugees from Torquamada’s Spain, Jews of the Holy Land having representation in the Turkish Parliament and the right to pray at the Western Wall, and King Feisel’s statement to the League of Nations welcoming a Jewish Homeland, and of course the fact that Abraham/Ibrehem was the Father of both peoples. Dayyenu!
You had not allowed the State Department to consistently balance terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians with housing starts (housing that can be occupied by Arabs as well as Jews, by the way) in the eastern portion of a United Jerusalem. Dayyenu!
The negotiations with Iran included some consideration of Israel’s immediate security needs. Dayyenu!
What all Iranian leaders, not in exile, have been saying, proves Iran is still the enemy of the United States and will continue to seek Israel’s destruction, and thus continue to fund terror. The agreement gives them additional funds and less need for secrecy to pursue those goals. Remember that the rockets used by Hesbolla and Hamas are largely made in Iran or use materials from Iran.
Iran already has declared war on Israel. Do you and Kerry expect Israel to sit around and be nucked before any real USA aid arrives? Thus the agreement is a step to more war and more violence, not peace.
3. Doctors identify a disease before curing it
Treating a symptom as the disease, instead of the disease, can result in the death of the patient. The main problem the World faces today is Islamic Fundamentalism. When confronted with this statement, your habitual response has been “America is not at war with Islam.” But Islamic Fundamentalism is already at war with the USA. Sure, by-and-large, Islam was a religion of Peace and tolerance. As noted earlier, after driving out the Crusaders, the Arabs invited 70 Jewish families to return to Jerusalem. Also, specific Convents and Monasteries were allowed to continue to function. But in 14 years the Mufti appointed by the British changed all that. (There remain pockets of traditional Islam. I would never accuse the Kings of Morocco and Jordan or Sissi of Egypt to be Islamic Fundamentalists, and there are ex-Soviet Islamic states with relations with Israel.) Iran’s current leaders are Islamic Fundamentalists, and the ONLY path to peace is a change of regime there. Your agreement preserves the present despotic regime.
Air traffic controllers go through an intensive and thorough selection process and an excellent and thorough training program. But the following is an excerpt from a WABC-TV news broadcast, after a light plane crash-landed on Long Island Railroad tracks. I got it from the website http://www.trains,com, under Trains Magazine, Forum, Transit, Light plane lands on LIRR tracks.
Joseph Milo was the type of person that everyone loved because he cared about everyone he came across… The 59 year old was flying his plane from Westhampton Beach to New Jersey Sunday morning when around Bethpage he reported to air traffic control that he was experiencing difficulty maintaining altitude. The controller at LaGuardia Airport responded, “There’s a strip right about your 12 o clock and 3 miles. It’s the Bethpage strip right there. And again Farmingdale about 10 o clock and 6.”
However there hasn’t been a landing strip in Bethpage for years.
Apparently, you do not believe that the theology of Islamic Fundamentalism exists. For you, the Pentagon and World Trade Center disasters, Fort Hood, the continuation of the quarrel over Israel’s existence among Muslims, Bengazi, ISIS, and the Iranian purchase of heavy weapons and nuclear facilities, are all separate items to be dealt with separately. So any country taking your advice or following your leadership may be on its way to the fate of Joseph Milo.
Best wishes and all possible respect,
David Lloyd (ben Yaacov Yehuda Klepper, student of the Yeshiva and US Army veteran, co-author, Worship Space Acoustics, http://www.jrosspub.com
I also believe that Pundit should publish a list of the Jewish Congressmen and Senators who voted with Obama immeidately after the vote.
Prager is fully complicit in the Iranian capitulation. He campaigned for Mitch McConnell against Matt Bevin, the Tea Party candidate, and it is McConnell’s support of the Corker Amendment which has practically insured that Obama will prevail. Prager talks a good game, but like many ostensibly pro-Israel American Jews the words and music just don’t match.
I don’t know if Dennis is referring to the latest polling. I thought there were some later polls that showed a shift against the deal among American Jews. Still, a significant number of American Jews do support the deal, and many of them don’t really care about Israel. The sooner these people leave the community the better. They should assimilate entirely and cease to identify with the Jewish community in any way. In conversation, we should make the point that they are not really Jewish…they just have Jewish ancestry.
Some people I’ve met have believed the evil, late Caspar Weinberger was Jewish. His family ceased being Jewish in the 19th century. Julia Louis-Dreyfus comes from a Jewish family–does she identify as Jewish (I doubt it, and I don’t consider her evil in the sense Weinberger was). Some people can be identified by their Jewish ancestry, but they’re no longer Jewish.
I consider Tom Friedman and Peter Beinart as questionable Jews, and they actively pursue causes hostile to Jews and our survival. The more we define them as of Jewish ancestry and no longer Jews, the better.