Sheffey: Don’t Let the GOP Play Politics with Stopping Iran

Max Samis — March 8, 2012 – 3:05 pm | Foreign Policy | Iran | Israel | Republicans Comments (0) Add a comment

This week, veteran pro-Israel activist Steve Sheffey wrote an op-ed for The Huffington Post in which he defended President Barack Obama’s Iran record and strongly criticized certain Republicans for turning the vital issue of stopping Iran into a political football.

Sheffey wrote:

Some Republicans who say there should be no daylight between the U.S. and Israel are doing their best to create the illusion of daylight for partisan gain. Some Republicans who say disagreements between the U.S. and Israel should be ironed out in private have no compunctions about publicly airing their disagreements with the Obama administration. The result is that our Republican friends unwittingly give succor to Israel’s enemies. Their attacks on President Obama create the impression that we are divided on Iran at a time when Iranian miscalculation can be fatal.

President Obama said on March 4, 2012 that ‘Iran’s leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.’ But instead of rallying behind the president in a bipartisan display of support for a policy that they profess to agree with, Republicans tell the world that the president didn’t mean it and might be willing to live with a nuclear Iran (despite President Obama’s explicit rejection of ‘containment’). This might be a recipe for short-term political gain, but it’s a recipe for disaster if Iranian leaders are tempted to doubt the president’s resolve.

Sheffey also responded to the false claims made by certain Republicans on Obama’s Iran record:

Republicans tell us that Israel too doubts the president’s resolve. What a surprise. If all I knew about the president’s resolve was based on Republican distortions of the president’s record, I’d be nervous too. The same people who have done everything possible to undermine trust in President Obama are projecting their mistrust of President Obama on to Israel.

The reality, according to U.S. and Israeli leaders, is that U.S.-Israel military and intelligence cooperation is at unprecedented levels. The trust is there….

If we take President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu at their word, the United States and Israel are aligned, despite the best efforts of whose who want to remove President Obama from office so badly that they are willing to sacrifice the U.S.-Israel relationship on the altar of political expediency.

An Israeli strike against Iran based on false assumptions about what the President will or will not do would be tragic for Israel and America, which is why the Republican campaign to delegitimize President Obama and to undercut his message should be opposed by everyone who values a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, regardless of party.

Click here to read the entire op-ed.

Click here to read the facts on the current state of U.S.-Israel relations, including what Israel’s leaders said over the weekend about Obama and Iran.

Click here to learn about Obama’s work to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program, including what Israeli leaders have said about his actions.     

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