Mark Kleiman, professor of public policy at the University of California Los Angeles has written an op-ed in The Washington Monthly which is a not so subtle attack on American Jews for the movement in the Senate to increase sanctions on Iran. The Professor believes it is the Jews who are pushing the Senate to pass the sanctions bill, and only different Jews (or people with Jewish sounding names) can correct the error of those first "pushy" Jews.
If you’re a constituent of, of contributor to, Mark Begich (Alaska), Michael Bennet (CO), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Cory Booker (N.J), Ben Cardin (Md.), Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.), Chris Coons (Del.), Joe Donnelly (Ind.) Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Joe Manchin (W.Va.), Bob Menendez (N.J.), Mark Pryor (Ark.),Charles Schumer (N.Y.), or Mark Warner (Va.), please consider making a phone call or sending a fax or email telling that Senator to back off the lunatic piece of warmongering legislation known as the Kirk-Menendez bill, designed to torpedo the nuclear deal with Iran. As of now, they’re all co-sponsoring it. Please consider making your voice heard especially strongly if you’re Jewish, or have a Jewish-sounding name.
Iranian nuclear weapons are a danger to all Americans, not just the Jewish ones, and it is Americans from all faiths and creeds who are pushing for the new sanctions bill, because an Iranian nuclear weapon is not just a danger to Israel but also to the United States.
When I see Ben Cardin’s name on the list, I want to weep. As a young political junkie in Baltimore, I admired Cardin intensely. He was a great state legislator and has been a fine Congressman and Senator. And maybe - I hope - his support for the bill is just for show, or for tactical advantage, or because he’s afraid of Sheldon Adelson and the AIPAC goon squad. Surely he must be smart enough to figure out that war with Iran is as much of a losing proposition for Israel - not for Bibi, but for the Zionist project - as it is for the U.S. He, and his weak-kneed colleagues, need to hear from the rest of us, loud and clear.
Perhaps Kleiman should do a bit more research before he spews his anti-Jewish stereotypes. If he had, the Professor might have read that members of Congress have expressed their surprise that AIPAC (who he calls goons), have not weighed in on the new sanctions, for example:
“I don’t know where AIPAC is. I haven’t talked to anybody,” said Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who opposes any vote for additional sanctions at this time.
“I don’t know what they’re doing,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a leading defense hawk and strong supporter of getting a vote on the bill
