Obama lobbies Jewish groups to back Iran deal
Meetings a part of administration’s broader effort to defend nuclear agreement framework amid increasing skepticism
April 14, 2015, 10:11 am
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US
President Barack Obama speaks during a press conference at the Summit
of the Americas at the ATLAPA Convention Center on April 11, 2015 in
Panama City. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO/MANDEL NGAN)
US President Barack Obama sat
down with over a dozen Jewish leaders and political supporters Monday in
two separate meetings, in an effort to defuse fears over the terms of a
framework long-term nuclear deal with Iran, and to assure them of his
commitment to Israel.
The
meetings were part of the administration’s broader effort to defend the
emerging Iran deal before an increasingly skeptical Congress and
public.
Participants in the first meeting said that
they first met with National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who had also
defended the US-led negotiations with Iran at the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference last month. After about 20
minutes, the president entered the room and stayed for over an hour.
Representatives of groups both supporting and opposing the terms of a
framework deal with Iran said that Obama was “generous” with his time.
Obama began with approximately 30 minutes of
remarks described by participants as “extensive.” In those comments, he
expressed nine arguments in support of the framework agreement with
Iran, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – reiterating
statements he and the administration have made publicly in recent weeks.
Participants, who were told to come prepared
with questions, engaged in a question-and-answer session with the
president after his opening remarks. The mood was said to have been
cordial, despite the displeasure that a number of major Jewish
organizations have expressed regarding the emerging terms of the deal
with Iran.
“They’re definitely trying to sell,” said
Nathan Diament, the executive director for public policy at the Union of
Orthodox Congregations of America, according to a report in Bloomberg Monday.
“He’s trying to convince the leadership of the
Jewish community that this is a good deal and that not only should we
be supporting the deal, but we should not be supporting initiatives on
Capitol Hill that the president views as potentially torpedoing the
deal,” Diament said.
Top officials from civil defense groups like
the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, umbrella
groups like the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations and the Jewish Federations of North America, and
pro-Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC and J Street were all in
attendance. Representatives of the Reform and Conservative movements
were also present alongside the Orthodox Union.
Last week, the more skeptical organizations also participated in an hour-long meeting
with both chief negotiator Wendy Sherman and Secretary of State John
Kerry, during which they raised many of the same concerns that were
reiterated during Monday’s meeting at the White House.
Later Monday afternoon, Obama met with Jewish
“community leaders,” including several prominent political supporters,
The Washington Post reported. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest
described the attendees as “outspoken advocates who may not hold
official positions or leadership positions in those organizations but
are, in their own right, effective advocates,” the report said.
Sources who have been apprised of the second
meeting said the group was composed of major donors to the Democratic
Party who have expressed skepticism about the Iran nuclear deal, among
them Israeli-American entertainment mogul Haim Saban.
Unlike in other meetings with Jewish
organizational leaders, Obama did not convey any clear “asks” – requests
to engage in advocacy for the deal, or even to tone down opposition to
it. He treated the meeting as informational, although he repeatedly
reiterated his commitment to Israel’s security and to the US-Israel
relationship.
One of the representatives described the
meeting to The Washington Post as “positive and very moving” and said
that the president was “heartfelt about his connection to Israel.”
He also repeated the phrase often stated by
State Department negotiators: that “nothing is agreed until everything
is agreed” and affirmed the administration’s willingness to walk away
from a deal that fails to meet its requirements.
Support for the Iran deal among the American
Jewish community would be valuable to the Obama administration given
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outspoken opposition to it.
The administration also intensified its
outreach to Congress in recent days as momentum has built behind a bill
that would require the legislative body to sign off on the final terms
of a deal with Iran.
Kerry arrived late Monday at Congress to brief
skeptical House lawmakers about the outlines of the framework deal
struck earlier this month in Lausanne, Switzerland. He told reporters
before the closed-door briefing open to all 435 House lawmakers that he
wanted to go into “some detail because there have been a lot of…
misrepresentations.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is
scheduled to vote Tuesday on the bill, which would give lawmakers 60
days to approve the terms of the nuclear deal and decide whether to lift
congressional sanctions on Iran.
The major powers and Iran earlier this month
announced they had agreed the outline of the deal, which would exchange
sanctions relief for restrictions aimed at keeping Iran from acquiring a
nuclear weapon. Iran and the US have since been at public odds over
several supposedly agreed central principles of the deal.
Netanyahu staunchly opposes the framework deal, asserting that it paves Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal.
JTA contributed to this report.
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