Pressure to support the Iran deal is one thing; anti-Semitic implications are another.
In early August, President Obama hosted 20 Jewish leaders at the White House’s Cabinet Room. His goal: to convince them to support the Iran deal. His rationale: not to support the deal will endanger Israel. Why? Because Iran will retaliate via its terrorist beneficiary, Hezbollah. So, according to Obama, if you say no to the deal, then the rockets from Lebanon will rain down.
This logic is not only misguided but dangerous. Dig deeper, deconstruct, and anti-Semitic tropes abound.
First, the misguided logic. Obama expects that his argument will convince the American Jewish community to support the deal. However, his argument, as reportedly presented at that meeting, acknowledges that:
• Iran is a state-sponsor of terrorism, which is its go-to retaliatory position;
• Iran views Israel as its enemy
• Iran is more than capable of waging war outside its borders.
Does any of this make you feel more secure about supporting a deal that allows Iran to continue to develop its nuclear infrastructure? If anything, Obama’s argument solidifies the widely held Israeli view that Iran is a mortal threat and must be stopped.
Has Obama failed to recognize that any nuclear deal notwithstanding, Iranian rockets have been falling on Israel for decades now, whether from Iran’s old friend Hezbollah up north or Iran’s fickle friend Hamas in the south?
What’s truly distasteful about the rhetoric emanating from the administration to the American Jewish community is the implication — intended or not — that Israel or the American Jewish community will be to blame if the deal fails to pass Congress, and will be held accountable.
Obama has isolated Israel by specifically stating it is the only nation opposed to the deal (which could change come the congressional vote) and Secretary of State John Kerry told the Council on Foreign Relations that friends of Israel may be blamed if the deal doesn’t pass.
Is this not just another form of the classic anti-Semitism, under which Jews are held accountable for the world’s ills?
On top of all this, since opponents of the deal are being painted as warmongers, the next logical step, at least in the mind of anti-Semites, is that Jews are warmongers if they are perceived as being against the deal.
We do not presume malevolent intent in the administration. One would hope, however, that the President of the United States would be more careful in choosing his words, in not projecting what have historically been anti-Semitic sentiments. One would hope that the American people, Jews and non-Jews, would not fall for such argumentation.
Support or oppose the Iran deal, either way. Vote it up or vote it down on its merits. And on nothing else.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
