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We Were Right to Oppose the Iran Deal

(JNS) Barry Shrage - In 2015, CJP, the Jewish Federation of Greater Boston, which I then headed, became the first U.S. Federation to oppose the Iran nuclear deal. We believed that rather than ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, it merely delayed them. The deal greatly increased Iran's resources and we believed that this would fuel Iran's longstanding aggression towards Israel, the U.S., and our allies through its funding of terror organizations worldwide. Tragically, we were right. Additional resources enabled Iran to decimate political opponents, support Assad's murderous regime in Syria killing hundreds of thousands and arm Hizbullah with precision-guided missiles aimed at Israel. Sadly, the Biden administration seems now to be seeking to revive the failed JCPOA deal, even after the election of President Ebrahim Raisi, the most radically anti-Western Iranian leader to date. It gives me no pleasure to know that we were right to oppose the deal in 2015. I wish we had been wrong. I wish that America's ardent pursuit of a deal had led to a kinder, gentler Iranian regime, as many predicted. The American Jewish community has a great deal at stake in this fight. The Abraham Accords have opened up new opportunities for regional peace - opportunities that unchecked Iranian aggression will destroy. We cannot afford to be MIA in this crucial debate. The writer, president of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston from 1987 to 2017, is a professor at the Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.
2021-11-04 00:00:00
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