Agonizing on how to vote in Congress to endorse or reject the President Barack Obama’s July 14 nuke deal with Iran, 64-year-old Sen. Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D-N.Y.) needs to wade through the propaganda, especially coming from the American Israeli Public Affairs Council [AIPAC]. AIPAC backs the view expressed March 3 to a joint session of Congress by 65-year-old Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Natanyahu,.to standing ovations by Capitol Hill’s conservative foreign policy hawks, that the deal poses an “existential threat” to Israel. Schumer finds himself caught between a rock-and-a-hard-place backing Israel but, at the same time, showing support to the Obama administration after two-years of tortuous negotiations with Iran. Backed by the P5+1, including U.S., U.K, France, Russia, China and Germany, Obama strongly urges Congressional approval.
Schumer’s loyalties are not to a tug-of-war between the U.S. and Israel but, rather, a battle for common sense inside himself. Whatever the flaws of the agreement, including allowing Iran to continuing enriching uranium and a dicey inspection regimen, the nuke deal has been endorsed by the P5+1. If Schumer rejects the agreement along with other AIPAC-backers and hawks in Congress, the U.N.-backed sanctions will end anyway because the agreement involves more than the U.S. AIPAC acts like only the U.S. negotiated the nuke agreement with Iran, showing how one-sided the opposition has become. Netanyahu’s argument revolves on the false premise that removing sanctions hastens Iran’s pursuit of an A-bomb, Israel’s destruction. AIPAC and Netanyahu know that, with or without the agreement, Iran will pursue its nuclear ambitions, independent of U.S and Israeli objections.
No matter how much Schumer agonizes between now and casting his Congressional vote before Sept. 14, it’s too late for the U.S., U.N. or any other country, including Israel, to stop Iran’s nuke program. Begun in the 1950s under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi with U.S. and French help, the nuke program didn’t start with Ayatollah’s Ruhollah Khomenei’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. All the death to America or Israeli chants or talk of the “great U.S. Satan,” or, even idle threats by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or past Iranian hotheads like former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, don’t amount to an “existential threat” to Israeli or the U.S. Iran’s hostile rhetoric towards the U.S. and Israel plays into the Mullah’s propaganda machine, allowing Khamenei’s Azeri Turks to continue plundering Iran’s wealth at the expense of ordinary Iranian citizens.
Khaemnei seeks relief from U.S. and U.N. sanctions to generate more petro-dollars and all the wealth that goes with it. No doubt Iran’s economy and currency has suffered under the weight of global isolation and sanctions. But whether or not Iran gets sanctions relief, it won’t change its nuclear ambitions, including competing the nuclear fuel cycle and building A-bombs. Like Pakistan, when chief nuclear scientist and national hero A.Q. Khan relentlessly pursued the bomb against objections from India and the U.N. Security Council, Iran, too, pursues its nuclear ambitions, despite denials of military applications. When Schumer weighs out White House, Israeli or AIPAC propaganda, he needs to consider what the agreement does or doesn’t do. With or without the agreement, Iran will pursue its nuclear ambitions. Having some international agreement is better than no agreement.
Opponents to the July 14 nuke deal don’t say what would happen without an agreement, hinting the P5+1 could somehow get a better deal. Opponents have accused the White House, especially Secretary of State John Kerry, of giving away the store, negotiating a bad deal. Proving that wrong, Iran’s hardliners, including the conservative Republican guards and Basij militia, have equal contempt for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iran’chief negotiator U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. If everyone were happy on both sides, then maybe it was a zero sum game: One side wins, the other side loses. “As a Jewish leader in America,” Schumer said. “I have to look at the facts,” vowing, “I will not be pushed around on the issue,” referring to pressure from AIPAC. Schumer wants the facts but knows that having the P5+1 police Iran’s nuke program is better than nothing.
Visiting Capitol Hill, Obama and Kerry have their work cut out selling the nuke deal during an Election Year. GOP presidential candidates and Capitol Hill hawks have joined with Netanyahu and AIPAC in opposing the deal. Schumer can’t readily swallow Netanyahu’s apocalyptic view that the nuke deal leads to another Holocaust. Hinting at where he’s leaning, Schumer spoke of the odds of Iran building a bomb. “If you are president of the United States or one of the European countries or an American, an average American, you say that pretty good,” Schumer said, referring to the nuke deal leaving Iran a 5% chance of getting a bomb. Opponents of the deal all have their agendas. GOP politicians want to discredit Obama’s foreign policy. Israeli has its own agenda. At the end of the day, allowing the P5+1 to monitor Iran’s nuke program provides more than empty promises.
