"Given the outstanding questions and our deep reservations about the agreement, we believe Congress should vote no on the deal." Picture: Jonathan Greenblatt, the new ADL national director who succeeded Abraham Foxman.
NEW YORK (EJP)---One of the US Jewish community’s most influential advocacy groups has urged the US Congress to say ‘’no’’ to the Iran nuclear agreement when it will vote in September.
"The debate today is focused in Congress on ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the Iran deal," the Anti Defamation League (ADL) said in statement issued Friday. "Given the outstanding questions and our deep reservations about the agreement, we believe Congress should vote no on the deal."
‘’While ADL believes the Administration has addressed some of the questions we highlighted in a July 20 letter to Members of Congress, serious concerns remain, including the effectiveness of the verification process to deter Iranian violations, the credibility of U.S. deterrence in light of the deal, the sufficiency of the nuclear limitations on Iran over the long term and Iran’s new legitimacy and renewed financial ability to support its extremist policies,’’ it said.
"At the same time, we believe there is an opportunity for bipartisan collaboration to forge a new path forward,"Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL National Chair, and Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL National Director, said in their statement.
"Regardless of the outcome of the vote, we have a responsibility to ensure that US policy addresses the ‘day after’ the vote and Iran’s state-sponsored promotion of anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism, its illiberalism at home, aggression in the region and support for terrorism around the world, and its unending litany of threats against America, Israel and other US allies."
"With this ‘day after’ in mind, we believe the stakeholders - regardless of the outcome of a vote in Congress – should work across the aisle for a more robust approach towards Iran. We need to recognize the strategic challenges posed by Iran and propose to address them with new consensus around a regional strategy, one that reflects our democratic values and highest ideals."
The ADL has joined other Jewish organizations, including the American Jewish Congress and AIPAC,in voicing criticism of the rhetoric used by President Barack Obama and his administration in arguing for the agreement and denouncing its opponents.
These groups are worried that the president's particular mention of Israel as a vocal critic of the Iran deal as well as his conflation of opponents of the agreement with those who supported the Iraq War come dangerously close to suggesting that American Jews have placed the interests of Israel above those of their own country.http://ejpress.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53521&catid=16
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