President Obama finally earned the Nobel Peace Prize he was given in 2009 and it’s driving Republicans crazy.
Secretary of State John Kerry also deserves credit for leading the 20 months of talks, along with representatives from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, getting Iranians to sign onto the deal to give up their pursuit of nuclear weapons and agreeing to allow UN inspectors to check their work. Now the challenge for Obama and Kerry is to get Congress to give peace a chance.
A solid majority of Americans support the agreement; a poll for the Washington Post and ABC News (July 20) showed 56% in favor and 37% opposed. While Republicans hope to make inroads into the Jewish vote, a poll conducted in June for J Street, a progressive Jewish group, found that 59% of American Jews support a final agreement with Iran that increases inspections in exchange for economic sanctions relief. And Jewish support grows to 78% for an agreement that imposes intrusive inspections of Iran and caps its enrichment of uranium as a level far below what is necessary to make a nuclear weapon in exchange for phased relief from US and international sanctions, as the final deal does.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains implacably opposed to the Iran deal. The leading Israel lobby group, AIPAC, is expecting to spend as much as $40 million on an ad campaign through the cover group “Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran” to put pressure on Democratic members of Congress to nullify Obama’s policy.
Many former senior intelligence and national security officials in Israel disagree with Netanyahu and believe the historic agreement is in the national security interest of the State of Israel.