Israeli Military Brass – And American Jews – Support Iran Deal

Zero Hedge – by George Washington

Haaretz reports that an impressive list of top Israeli military brass support the deal with Iran. These military leaders wrote a letter to Netanyahu urging him to support the Iran deal.

Because it’s hard to read names jammed together without any organization, here’s a list of some of the military bigwigs (all now retired) who signed the letter:  

• Shlomo Gaza, Chief of Intelligence, Major General
• Carmi Gillon, Director of Israel Security Agency
• Ami Ayalon, Vice Admiral, Director of Israel Security Agency
• Itamar Yaar, Colonel Deputy Israeli National Security Council
• Arie Pellman, Israeli Security Agency official
• Amiram Levin, deputy of the Mossad director, Major General
• Itzhak Barzilay, Mossad official
• Nathan Sharony, Major General, head of planning for the armed forces

Numerous admirals and generals signed the letter as well:

• David Ben Bashat, Vice Admiral
• Micha Ram, Vice Admiral
• Alex Tal, Vice Admiral
• Amira Dotan, Brigadier General, member of Parliament
• Uzi Eilam, Brigadier General, Director of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission
• Aviezer Yaari, Major General
• Giora Romm, Major General
• Moshe Lichtman, Major General
• Amram Mitzna, Major General, member of Parliament
• Abraham Almog, Brigadier General, Medal of Courage
• Asher Levy, Brigadier General
• Yossi Gonen, Brigadier General
• Giora Inbar, Brigadier General
• Arie Keren, Brigadier General
• Yoram Cohen, Brigadier General
• Shlomo Egozy. Brigadier General
• Yosef Eyal, Brigadier General
• Asaf Agmon, Brigadier General
• Uriel Agmon, Brigadier General
• Yoram Agmon, Brigadier General
• Amos Amir Brigadier General
• Mordechai ‘Motke’ Ben Porat, Brigadier General
• Shaul Gavoli, Police Major Geneneral, LDF Brigadier General
• Ilan Paz, Brigadier General
• Yitzhak Rabin, Brigadier General
• Giora Ram (Furman), PhD, Brigadier General
• Yaron Ram, Brigadier General
• Gilad Ramot, Brigadier General
• Gilad Raz, Brigadier General
• lftach Spector, Brigadier General
• Benny Taran , Brigadier General
• Aharon Vardi, Brigadier General
• Shlomo Waxe. Brigadier General
• Izak Zamir, Brigadier General
• Gadi Zohar, Brigadier General
• Amnon Reshef, General
• Ran Ronen, General
• Danny Rothschild, General

In addition, numerous top Israeli military brass have previously come out in favor of the Iran deal, including:

• Efraim Halevy, Mossad Director; former head of National Security Council
• Shlomo Ben-Ami, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Internal Security
• Shlomo Brom, brigadier general; former director of IDF strategic planning division; former deputy national security advisor
• Uzi Arad, national security advisor
• Dov Tamari, military intelligence chief; former head of special operations
• Chuck Freilich, deputy national security advisor
• Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael, Chair of Israel’s space agency; former IDF general
• Uzi Even, lead scientist at Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor
• Eran Etzion, Deputy Head of the Israeli National Security Council; former Head of Policy Planning at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Israel Ziv, major general
• Eli Levite, deputy director general of Israel’s atomic energy commission

Polls show that American Jews overwhelmingly support the deal with Iran.

For example, the Christian Science Monitor noted last November:

84 percent of American Jews would favor either strongly or somewhat a deal with Iran that would alleviate tough sanctions on the Iranian economy in exchange for Iran’s agreement to limit its nuclear program to civilian purposes and accept inspectors at its nuclear facilities.

The pro-Israel group J Street noted in June:

American Jews express strong support for a final agreement with Iran that increases inspections in exchange for economic sanctions relief. Fifty-nine percent say they would support such a deal, compared to 53 percent of American adults in an April CNN poll that asked the same question.

J Street reported last month:

A new national survey of 1,000 American Jews, conducted by GBA Strategies for J Street, finds that a large majority of Jews support the agreement recently reached between the United States, world powers, and Iran. The 20-point margin (60 percent to 40 percent) in favor of the agreement is consistent with the 18-point margin found in the LA Jewish Journal’s survey released last week, as well as the 18-point margin in J Street’s survey conducted prior to the agreement. Multiple surveys have shown with resounding clarity that American Jews firmly back the agreement, and now want Congress to approve it.

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Given the massive campaigns against the agreement that has been launched by AIPAC and the Republican Jewish Coalition, it is very clear that these high profile campaigns do not reflect the views of the majority of American Jews.

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Seventy percent [of American Jews] would support US engagement even if it meant stating US disagreements with both the Israelis and Arabs and 69 percent would support the US pressuring both parties to make the compromises.

And see this, this, this, this, this, this and this.

The head of the CIA also supports the deal.

Everyone – including the Iranian public – knows that the Mullahs of Iran are complete A$$H@les.

So why would Israeli military brass and American Jews support a deal with Iran?  Perhaps because:

• Contrary to widespread claims, there is NO EVIDENCE that Iran is building a nuclear weapon.  EvenIsrael admits that Iran has not decided to build a nuclear bomb (If you’ve heard otherwise, HERE’S WHY)

• Top American defense officials say that – despite its heated rhetoric (often mistranslated in the U.S.) – Iran is a “rational actor”

• Experts say that Iran poses very little threat to the West or Israel . Top American and Israeli military and intelligence officials say that – even if Iran did build a nuclear bomb – it would not be that dangerous, because Israel and America have so many more nukes. And see this

• Conversely, American military and intelligence chiefs say that attacking Iran would only speed up its development of nuclear weapons, empower its hardliners, and undermine the chance for democratic reform

• Iran has not started a war for at least 188 years (in the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was the initial aggressor)

• The people pushing for war against Iran are the same people who pushed for war against Iraq, and said it would be a “cakewalk”. See this and this

• They’ve been pushing for another round of regime change in Iran for decades

• The CIA admits that the U.S. overthrew the moderate, suit-and-tie-wearing, Democratically-elected prime minister of Iran in 1953. He was overthrown because he had nationalized Iran’s oil, which had previously been controlled by BP and other Western oil companies. As part of that action, the CIAadmits that it hired Iranians to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its prime minister

• If the U.S. hadn’t overthrown the moderate Iranian government, the fundamentalist Mullahs would have never taken over. (Moreover, the U.S. has had a large hand in strengthening radical Islam in the Middle East by supporting radicals to fight the Soviets and others)

• On the other hand, the most violent Muslims are Sunnis. America backs the Sunnis in their fight against the Shias. Iran is a Shia country, and 89% of Iranian people are Shia

• America’s decades-long wars are hurting our national security. A top Pentagon official say we’re no safer – and perhaps less safe – after 13 years of war. Indeed, war only PROMOTED the dramatic expansion of even worse terrorists

• Never-ending wars are also destroying our freedom. The Founding Fathers warned against standing armies, saying that they destroy freedom. (update). Perversely, our government  treats anti-war sentiment as terrorism.  But peace and international trade is the only way to save our country

• Top economists say that war is destroying our economy.  But war is great for the bankers and the defense contractors, and some of the powers-that-be are worried that peace with Iran would be bad for business

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-06/israeli-military-brass-and-american-jews-support-iran-deal