Not In My Name: Jewish Institutions Should Stop Their Criticism Of Iran Deal

Paul Scham of the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies expresses his opinions about the Iran Deal in his op-ed.

As an active member of this community since 1988 (except for six years when I lived in Israel), I want to express my indignation at the use of Jewish community institutions, locally and nationally, for the partisan political purposes of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, and against the policies of President Barack Obama with regard to the Iran nuclear deal.

Two recent polls have shown that American Jews support the agreement by considerable majorities, 49 percent to 30 percent in one by The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and 60 percent to 40 percent in one sponsored by J Street, which supports the deal.  Contrary results were found by a poll taken by The Israel Project, which opposes the deal, 45 percent to 40 percent against the deal. All of these polls make clear that a considerable portion of American Jews support the agreement. Thus, I find it reprehensible that a number of Jewish community institutions are lobbying their members to oppose it and are making their facilities available to the well-financed campaign to defeat it, thus conveying the widespread impression that American Jews are united in opposition.

No institution or government can be run by opinion polls, of course.  However, on an issue of this importance, the willingness of Jewish community leaders to kowtow to official Israeli policy against the wishes of those who they claim as their constituents is outrageous.

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