The Iran deal gathers another Republican, but non-Congressional, supporter – former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, courtesy The Washington Post:
“It’s somewhere in between naive and unrealistic to assume that after we’ve, the United States of America, has negotiated something like this with the five other, you know, parties and with the whole world community watching, that we could back away from that – and that the others would go with us, or even that our allies would go with us,” Paulson said during a forum sponsored by the Aspen Institute on Thursday night to discuss his new book on China.
“And unilateral sanctions don’t work, okay?” Paulson continued. “They really have to be multilateral.”
(h/t Steve Benen @ MaddowBlog)
So it seems if you’re not running for something, you can be rational, but if your job is on the line, then you have to play to the audience. Not precisely the definition of leadership, not to my mind.
Not that this is an exclusively American illness, as the Israelis seem to have some version of it as well. In contrast, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has released a strategic document, according to Ben Caspit at AL Monitor, which, as one might expect with an institution intimate with realities, handles the Iranian situation rather differently than the politicians:
Commentators have marveled that the Iranian nuclear threat is barely mentioned in the [IDF Strategic] document. According to the chief of staff, that threat is currently not sufficiently relevant to be included in the IDF’s strategy for the next five years. The threat can be shelved for a decade or two.
The document also confirms something published in Al-Monitor a few weeks ago: that the IDF top brass are far less melodramatic about the Iranian threat than Israel’s highest political echelons, i.e., Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some of his ministers. Instead, the IDF is much more concerned about potential Iranian involvement in considerable proportions of terror acts against Israel along the length of its various borders.
However, the Israeli politicians may find more justification in this part of the IDF Strategic Document:
The military exercise signals to players in the field that Israel will not hold back, but will respond forcefully to any scenario. Simultaneously, Israeli security sources emphasize that so far, all the terror activities against Israel in the northern zone have been perpetrated by Hezbollah, under Iranian inspiration. Not a single bullet, not even a firecracker, has been fired against Israel by the various organizations rebelling against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Israel hopes that this situation will continue, and to be on the safe side, it tried to demonstrate what would happen if the situation changes.
Finally, and with whatever validity you wish to assign it, Arutz Sheva reports a number of Jewish rabbis are urging acceptance of the deal:
More than 300 liberal American rabbis wrote members of Congress Monday urging them to support the international nuclear deal with Iran, signaling the US Jewish community is split over the historic but controversial accord.
The religious leaders come from across the spectrum, but hail overwhelmingly from Judaism’s Conservative and Reform streams as well as other liberal, non-Orthodox Jewish movements, a spokesperson said.
“We encourage the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to endorse this agreement,” the 340 rabbis wrote in a letter to Congress distributed by Ameinu, a liberal charitable Jewish organization.
“We are deeply concerned with the impression that the leadership of the American Jewish community is united in opposition to the agreement,” the rabbis added.
“We, along with many other Jewish leaders, fully support this historic nuclear accord.”
