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Jewish community reacts to Iran nuclear deal

The Jewish community in Los Angeles and nationwide reacted Thursday to the news that the framework of an initial deal on limiting Iran’s nuclear program had been set.
[additional-authors]
April 2, 2015

The Jewish community in Los Angeles and nationwide reacted Thursday to the news that the framework of an initial deal on limiting Iran’s nuclear program had been set:

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-Los Angeles):

“The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has embraced the statement read by the European Union representative on nuclear negotiations, which is very vague. An hour later, President Obama issued a much longer, more detailed fact sheet of the agreed framework.”


“The most important thing the President can do is get the Iranians to agree in public to what they have agreed to in private.”


Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple told the Journal in a phone interview that Israel is the most “threatened” by the negotiations and thus the most “negative” about them.

“Everybody automatically becomes an expert on nuclear verification when such things happen and the truth is most of us don’t know very much about the technical issues involved, the question is who do you trust, that is, which individuals do you have the most faith in, and the one thing I do know that makes me very uncomfortable is that the people who are the most threatened are the most negative—Israel. The people who are most threatened by an Iranian nuclear bomb are most threatened by the outcome of the talks thus far. I emphasize ‘thus far’ because a lot of details are not known yet and I think that gives a lot of people unease. More than that, I don’t think I can say.”

In a phone interview, Sam Yebri, an attorney and co-founder of Iranian-Jewish organization 30 Years After, expressed “concern” about today's deal.

“The 'framework' of a deal announced today leaves many Iranian-American Jews concerned that the key components of Iran’s nuclear weapons program will not be dismantled.  We are also disappointed that billions of dollars worth of sanctions for which our community tirelessly advocated and which forced Iran to the negotiating table are being lifted on the misguided premise that, if Iran violates the deal, sanctions can simply 'snap back into place' without consequence. Meanwhile, the deal brings legitimacy to, and demands no change in behavior from, a regime that continues to oppress gays, women and religious minorities, sponsor terrorism globally, and chant death to America and Israel.”

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, spiritual leader of Pico Shul:

“Iran is a sponsor of hate and terrorism aimed at Jews and Americans around the world,” he said in a phone interview. “There is nothing in these agreements, from what I’ve seen, that requires them to change their ways.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center spoke to the Journal by phone:

“[Zarif] can barely contain his glee…As soon as whatever the checklist might be is fulfilled that's the end of international sanctions…If in fact there's a clear path to nuclearization for Tehran in this current environment they [Sunni countries in the Middle East] are all going to go nuclear…When a leading Iranian figure, in this case a general from the Basij, says in the midst of the negotiations that the annihilation of Israel is non-negotiable, and there isn’t one single representative that I know of from the P5+1 who utters a single public word of protest, that should worry every single Jew on the plane…They did send the wrong signal ­– though their silence. That's the kind of move that more than anything else will further embolden the Iranians and every other anti-Semite on the planet.”

David Myers, UCLA history professor and Journal contributor spoke to the journal by phone:

Myers described himself as a supporter of negotiations with Iran, and, on Thursday said the deal represents a victory in curbing Iran’s nuclear program, if a small one. “Tough foreign policy decisions often entail decisions between a bad option and a worse option and I think this is a case in which the bad option was pursued. The deal seems imperfect, though better than many had been led to believe in recent weeks. Even some skeptics of the deal think it went further than they thought [it would]. 

Myers described the deal as “a calculated risk in several regards. One, it rests on the premise that there will be a 10-year period in which the Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons will be both monitored and limited, and it rests on the second premise that there may well be, as a result of this deal, either an amelioration in the hostile rhetoric and actions of the Iranian government, or, in an ideal world, a regime change, that somehow this will change things up back home… It’s understandable why there are concerns, and they are perfectly legitimate, but it seems to be the choice between a bad or a worse option and I would always choose the bad over the worse.

“The worse option is no deal and hence no constraints placed on Iran whatsoever. Yes there would be the threat or the intensification of sanctions on Iran … [but] it’s not as if we have Russia or China in our camp at this point in time, and then the effective sanctions would be significantly mitigated by the relationship Iran [has with those countries, and there] may well be encouragement by those other powers of Iranians’ pursuit of weapons… At that point, if in fact Iran does take significant steps in that direction, then you risk what we are fearful of, an escalation in the Middle East into a nuclear arms race. Saudi Arabia will in all likelihood jump in, and others may try as well; Egypt and Turkey may be candidates…that’s not a recipe for harmony or peace, security or a sense of stability. So, that’s what the worst option looks like to me.”

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, issued the following comment:

“At its core, the Passover holiday we will begin observing in just a few hours is about negotiating with a tyrant to deliver ourselves to freedom. As we think about our grave concerns about some aspects of the joint statement between the P5+1 and Iran, that story feels all too relevant. As the Obama Administration negotiates between now and June the final details of today’s framework, we urge them to remain firm in their commitment to resolve the negotiations successfully on favorable terms, assuring the American people and the international community that Iran’s nuclear program is transparent and peaceful.”

Reform Movement leadership statement:

“The United States has today announced a statement of progress between the P5+1 and Iran on the future of Iran’s nuclear program. The position of our Movement has long been that Iran must not be permitted under any circumstances to obtain nuclear weaponry and the best way to resolve the nuclear issue is a negotiated agreement among the parties. We thank the Obama administration for its determination to reach a negotiated settlement, even while stating that all options remain open should a settlement not be achieved. It has led an international effort to advance these negotiations and to impose sanctions on Iran until the negotiations are concluded. A negotiated resolution of these problems will be difficult to reach, but all the alternatives to such a resolution are grim.

At the same time, we express our grave concerns about aspects of the announced framework. Very serious questions about such matters as inspection, verification, break-out time, and the timing of removal or easing of sanctions remain. Concerns raised by Prime Minister Netanyahu and others about Iran’s nuclear weapons program are serious and real. It seems clear that the Iranian government has yet to make the significant concessions that will be required of it. Since the final details of the agreement are to be established by the end of June, we urge the Obama administration to remain firm in its commitment to resolve the negotiations successfully on favorable terms, assuring the American people and the international community that Iran’s nuclear program will be transparent and peaceful. In the meantime, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and carefully consider the parameters and implications of relevant legislation moving through the Congress.”

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