Netanyahu, Obama make dueling appeals on Iran
By The Associated Press | Washington/Wednesday, 5 August 2015/U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made dueling appeals to the American Jewish community Tuesday as they sought to rally support for their opposing positions on the Iranian nuclear deal. Obama met privately for more two hours with Jewish leaders at the White House, making a detailed case for the nuclear accord and urging opponents – including some in the room – to stick to the facts in making their own arguments, according to participants. He singled out the tens of millions of dollars being spent by critics, most notably the pro-Israel group American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The president’s meeting came hours after Netanyahu participated in a live webcast aimed at Americans Jews.
The prime minister railed against the agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief, calling it a “bad deal” that leaves Tehran on the brink of a bomb.
“The nuclear deal with Iran doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb. It actually paves Iran’s path to the bomb,” Netanyahu said in his remarks. Organizers said about 10,000 people participated in the meeting. Netanyahu, one of the fiercest critics of the nuclear accord, also disputed Obama’s assertion that opponents of the diplomatic deal favor war. He called that assertion “utterly false,” saying Israel wants peace, not war. Participants in Obama’s meeting with Jewish leaders said attendees who oppose the deal raised with the president their concern over being painted as eager for war. They said while Obama appeared sympathetic to their concerns, he continued to argue that if Congress rejects the agreement, he or the next president would quickly face a decision on taking military action to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. The back-to-back sales pitches from the leaders came on the eve of a foreign policy address Obama was to deliver as he seeks to bolster support for the deal in Congress. A White House official said Obama would frame lawmakers’ decision to approve or disapprove of the deal as the most consequential foreign policy debate since the decision to go to war in Iraq. The official said Obama would also argue that those who backed the Iraq war, which is now widely seen as a mistake, are the same ones who oppose the Iran deal. The official insisted on anonymity because the official was not authorized to preview the president’s address by name. Participants in the meeting were also granted anonymity in order to comment on their private discussions with the president. The White House is preparing for the likelihood that lawmakers will vote against the deal next month and is focusing its lobbying efforts on getting enough Democrats to sustain a veto. Only one chamber of Congress is needed to sustain a veto. Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday that the White House is confident it can sustain a veto “at least in the House.” The president got a boost in the Senate Tuesday with Sens. Barbara Boxer of California, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Bill Nelson of Florida announcing their support for the deal. However, the administration lost the backing of three prominent Jewish Democrats – New York Reps. Steve Israel and Nita Lowey and Florida Rep. Ted Deutch. Obama, who has long been criticized for his lack of engagement with Congress, has gotten personally involved in selling the deal to lawmakers and other influential groups. Those who have met with him say he has a detailed understanding of the complex agreement, which is perhaps his top foreign policy priority. “It was pretty solid evidence of a couple of things: first of all, just how engaged the president is on this issue, and second, how important it is to him,” said Andrew Weinstein, a South Florida community leader who attended the meeting. Also among the roughly two-dozen leaders joining Obama in the Cabinet Room were Michael Kassen and Lee Rosenberg of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is vehemently opposed to the deal, as well as Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, who is among the deal’s most vocal proponents. The White House said representatives from the Orthodox Union, the Reform Movement, the World Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League also attended.
Obama to evoke ghosts of Iraq, Soviet Union in another Iran plea
AFP, Washington/Wednesday, 5 August 2015/President Barack Obama will present the Iran nuclear debate as the most momentous U.S. foreign policy decision since the Iraq war Wednesday, in a fresh history-evoking bid to win support. In the address to the American University in Washington, Obama will frame Congress’ polarizing debate over the deal as “the most consequential” since lawmakers in 2002 backed George W. Bush’s drive to war, according to a White House official. Obama has long argued that vote represented a grave mistake that pushed the United States into eight blood-soaked years of unnecessary conflict. “He will point out that the same people who supported war in Iraq are opposing diplomacy with Iran, and that it would be an historic mistake to squander this opportunity,” the official said. Obama has fervently argued in favor of the agreement that would give Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on a nuclear program which the United States has long suspected is cover for building a bomb. Positing the unpopular Iraq war as a cautionary tale, Obama is likely to recall John F. Kennedy’s efforts to curb nuclear tests as a more worthy example to follow. Months before his assassination, Kennedy used the same university venue to vehemently argue for peace with the Soviet Union in the face of panic over a nuclear conflagration. In a 1963 commencement address, Kennedy cautioned against brandishing U.S. power to bring about the “peace of the grave or the security of the slave.” Instead, he announced diplomatic efforts to check “one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms.” Obama has argued that the alternative to a negotiated nuclear deal with Iran is military action, something his critics angrily denounce as a false dichotomy. The alternative to a bad deal, they say, is a better deal. The debate has split Congress largely — although not exclusively — along party lines, with Republicans, who are in the majority, staunchly against. That means Obama will need to win the support of fellow Democrats in order to avoid having the deal struck down by lawmakers.
Obama: If Congress strikes down Iran deal, rockets will rain on Tel Aviv
Itamar Eichner/Ynetnews/Published: 08.05.15/Israel News
In meeting with American Jewish leaders, president warns Israel will pay price for failure of nuclear deal with Tehran; ‘American military action against Iran will not end with Tehran declaring war on us. What Iran could do is increase support of terrorism’.
WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama told Jewish leaders on Tuesday that if the nuclear deal signed between world powers and Iran is rejected by Congress, the United States will be forced to attack Tehran, which will lead to Hezbollah retaliating with rockets on Tel Aviv.
“Israel would bear the brunt of a US military strike,” Obama told 22 American Jewish leaders during a meeting at the White House.
The president asserted that if Congress votes against the agreement, the Islamic Republic will back out of it and he will then face pressure from those who oppose the deal to militarily strike Tehran.
“It would be destructive both to the US and to Israel,” Obama warned. “An American military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities will not result in Iran deciding to have a full-fledged war with the United States. Iran’s defense budget is $15 billion. The American defense budget is $600 billion. What Iran would do, and could do, is respond a-symmetrically by increasing its support for terrorism.”
“You’ll see Hezbollah rockets falling on Tel Aviv,” Obama said.
While Iran won’t attack the United States directly, it could attack American targets across the world, or arming and funding its proxies on Israel’s borders, Obama said.
The Republican-led US House of Representatives will vote on whether to reject the agreement when lawmakers return to Washington in September, party leaders said on Tuesday, setting up a showdown with the president.
Also among the roughly two-dozen leaders joining Obama in the Cabinet Room were Michael Kassen and Lee Rosenberg of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is vehemently opposed to the deal, as well as Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, who is among the deal’s most vocal proponents. The White House said representatives from the Orthodox Union, the Reform Movement, the World Jewish Congress and the Anti-Defamation League also attended.
The president said he was willing to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss how to increase Israel’s security, “but he won’t meet with me.”
“Meeting me would be, for him, like waving a white flag, and Netanyahu wants us to keep fighting over the agreement,” Obama said. Obama is expected to meet with Netanyahu in the next two months, but not before the prime minister’s speech at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September.
The back-to-back sales pitches from the leaders came on the eve of a foreign policy address Obama was to deliver as he seeks to bolster support for the deal in Congress. A White House official said Obama would frame lawmakers’ decision to approve or disapprove of the deal as the most consequential foreign policy debate since the decision to go to war in Iraq.
“He will point out that the same people who supported war in Iraq are opposing diplomacy with Iran, and that it would be an historic mistake to squander this opportunity,” the official said.
The president’s meeting with Jewish leaders, held at the White House’s Cabinet Room on the president’s 54th birthday, was “serious” and “cordial” but at times “contentious,” according to some participants. Vice President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes were also present.
While admitting the agreement was “by no means perfect,” the president asserted opponents could “try and poke holes in the deal. They might find small problems but the bottom line is that this deal is good for the national security of the US and Israel.”
Obama told the Jewish leaders that when he entered the white House in 2008, he decided to make it his top priority to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb. However, he decided to try to avoid war as much as possible, but clarified he “would not hesitate to use force only as a last resort.”
The president said he was surprised to learn that despite talk of the military option during the Bush administration, there was no plan for such a contingency.
He therefore had to ask the Pentagon to prepare a plan for a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities in case it is needed.
During the meeting, Lee Rosenberg, AIPAC’s chairman and a close friend of Obama’s, protested the fact the president presented opponents to the deal as “warmongers.”
Rosenberg was backed by Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and chairman Steve Greenberg and vice chairman Malcolm Hoenlein.
The president told the gathered Jewish leaders that while it is their right to protest, they ought to do so based on the deal’s merits.
“If you can’t fight the deal on the merits you will weaken the coherence of the Jewish community and harm the US-Israel relationship,” Obama said. “You can spend 20 or 50 million dollars on a campaign but you can’t publish ads that say that if you are against the deal, you are a bad Jew or anti-Israel. Talk about the facts and not about what you think might help you convince people to oppose the deal.”
Obama’s meeting with the Jewish leaders came a few hours after participated in a live webcast aimed at Americans Jews, broadcast to synagogues and community centers across the country. Organizers said about 10,000 people participated in the meeting.
With surveys showing American Jewish opinion mixed on a dispute that has strained the US-Israeli alliance, Netanyahu cast his opposition to the Iran deal as non-partisan.
“The nuclear deal with Iran doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb, it actually paves Iran’s path to the bomb,” the prime minister said.
He argued that the deal gives Iran two paths to the bomb, “Iran can get to the bomb by keeping the deal, or Iran could get to the bomb by violating the deal.”
“I don’t oppose this deal because I want war. I oppose this deal because I want to prevent war. And this deal will bring war,” he said, cautioning that sanctions relief would result in a financial windfall for Iran that could help fund destabilizing regional conflicts.
“This is a time to stand up and be counted. Oppose this dangerous deal,” Netanyahu said.
Reuters and AP contributed to this report.
