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What do Eli Broad and Matt Weiner have in common? They’re for the Iran deal

[additional-authors]
August 14, 2015

“Under negotiated terms, there’s never been a better nuclear deal created in the history of the world,” film producer Lawrence Bender declared from a beach in the Hamptons.

Bender is one of 98 leaders from L.A.’s Jewish community, including internationally renowned architect Frank Gehry, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad and “Mad Men” creator Matt Weiner who signed an open letter urging congress to approve the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The letter appears as an advertisement in the Aug. 15 Jewish Journal.

“I am still a big supporter of Barack Obama,” said Bender, who has long been invested in Democratic politics. “But this is too important an issue to say ‘Oh it’s my president and I am supportive.’” He decided to support the deal, he said, “because I’ve been in enough meetings, on enough phone calls, with experts, where the details were discussed.”

The letter is unequivocal in its support: “Approval of the agreement is in the best interest of the United States and Israel,” the letter begins, calling any move to kill the deal “a tragic mistake.”

Among the signatories to letter are Hollywood producers, local philanthropists, former United States Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor, and a handful of rabbis, including IKAR’s Sharon Brous, Temple Israel of Hollywood’s John Rosove and Joshua Levine Grater of the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center. Other notable signatories include sitcom producer Norman Lear, Hollywood philanthropists Monica and Phil Rosenthal, and former board chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, Stanley Gold.

The group represents a wide, yet liberal-leaning swath of the L.A. Jewish community, many with ties to political organizations such as Americans for Peace Now and the lobby group, JStreet, both of which have vociferously supported the deal.

Mel Levine, a former Democratic congressman, helped spearhead the effort after several disgruntled community members reached out to him about a statement emailed by Federation condemning the deal and calling upon the entire Jewish community to lobby against it.

“A number of people were very unhappy with the Federation message and felt it provided an inaccurate view of our community,” Levine said. “The clearest way to demonstrate that was by putting an ad in the Jewish Journal.”

Federation board members Mark Lainer, Glenn Sonnenberg and Abner Goldstine added their names to the letter.

Levine, an attorney with the Century City office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said the group was also motivated by the desire to tell California congressional representatives that Jewish opinion regarding the Iran deal is varied, and that the Federation’s statement is not representative of the Jewish majority.

A recent Jewish Journal poll found that nearly half of American Jews favor a deal “in which the United States and other countries would lift major economic sanctions against Iran, in exchange for Iran restricting its nuclear program in a way that makes it harder for it to produce nuclear weapons.”

Only 28 percent of American Jewish respondents opposed the deal.

Norman Lear, the iconic sitcom creator, was also influential in supporting the ad. Earlier this month, he hosted a JStreet salon in his home attended by JStreet Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami. At that event, a JStreet representative asked attendees if they would sign their name to a letter supporting the deal.

“Without the deal, the door is closed and you don’t know what’s going on,” Lear said in an interview with the Journal. “It seems to me common sense to keep the door open, keep the conversation going. It’s as simple as that. If you’re not able to communicate, then anything can go on; it’s not even behind your back. I would rather have the door open and everybody know what’s going on.”

Lear said he felt so strongly about the deal he declined to attend an event with influential New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, after Schumer announced he would oppose the deal, becoming the first Senate Democrat to do so.

“I fully intended to be there until he announced his position on Iran,” Lear said. “And I simply dropped him a note to say I would not be there.”

Lear is a major supporter of Democratic politics and is unabashed when it comes to civic engagement. “I don’t feel this is private; it’s a public position about a public matter. And I like being a citizen. I’ve always liked being a citizen.”

Also taking a public stand is Temple Israel’s Rabbi John Rosove, who counts “Mad Men” creator Weiner and the Rosenthals as members of his congregation. Rosove is also a co-chair of JStreet’s national rabbinic cabinet, and is said to have reached out to a number of congregants about signing the ad.

Bender, best known for producing a slew of Quentin Tarantino movies, including “Reservoir Dogs,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglourious Basterds,” said he is a longtime supporter of the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclearization group. In 2010, Bender produced the documentary, “Countdown to Zero,” about the rise in global nuclear proliferation.

“The two greatest threats that we are facing in the world today are global warming and a nuclear catastrophe,” Bender said. “Nuclear proliferation has a serious effect on mankind. It’s a serious, serious threat.”

This deal is better than no deal, he said.

“Are there things I wish were better about the deal? Yeah. It’s not a perfect deal. But unless we went to war with Iran and defeated them, and then dictated terms, this is best deal possible,” Bender said.

Bender added that he has participated in both open and closed discussions on the deal, with both AIPAC and JStreet, the Israeli foreign ministry and the Council for Foreign Relations, which recently conducted a Q-&-A with the U.S. chief negotiator, Secretary of State John Kerry.

The ad, though funded independently, is still connected to the Jewish community’s broader machinery, which has been spending millions of dollars to sway opinions on the deal. AIPAC’s tax-exempt lobbying group, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, created in July, has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to beat the deal. Likewise, other groups including JStreet, Americans for Peace Now and the American Jewish Committee have been devoting resources and time to informing, educating and swaying their constituencies. 

The subject of the Iran nuclear deal remains one of the most divisive issues the Jewish community has faced – in both the United States and in Israel, from the frayed relations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, to more immediate discord in local synagogues and institutions.

Even with nuclear deterrence, many believe the deal poses a great danger to Israel, who will still have to contend with the consequences of a wealthier Iran after sanctions are lifted in accordance with the deal. It is no secret that Iran invests heavily in the terrorist groups that dapple Israel’s borders.

Others see no other way to protect Israel than by accepting a deal to insure that for at least 15-years Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.

“The primary objective [of this ad] was to let members of congress know that there are many of us in the community who love Israel who support the deal,” Levine said.

“Anybody who thought the Jewish community was united on this was smoking something.”

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