Marco Rubio and AIPAC allied in effort to insert poison pill into Iran deal

Marco Rubio just announced for president in a call to donors. First things first.

Rubio has his foreign-policy priorities down, too. He wants to insert a poison pill into the Iran deal:

Sen. Marco Rubio wants to make Iran recognize Israel’s right to exist as a condition of any nuclear agreement with Tehran.

The Florida Republican has floated his proposal as a possible amendment to a Senate bill written by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) that would allow Congress to disapprove of any deal…

The Jewish Week is calling this the Bibi amendment; Rubio got the idea from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu:

Netanyahu is insisting that any final agreement with Iran over its nuclear program include a “clear and unambiguous Iranian commitment of Israel’s right to exist.”

Douglas Bloomfield, a former legislative director for the leading Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), writes that AIPAC will join in the push if the amendment is offered:

Republicans are backing the “Bibi” language because it sets up Democrats, especially Jewish ones, to choose between supporting Israel or the administration, which opposes the amendment. AIPAC will be lobbying hard for the amendment, if it is offered, and then notify its members who the real friends of Israel are and who doesn’t deserve their contributions and votes.

The added value of the Rubio’s amendment is that it not only splits Jews and Democrats but it would kill any chance of an agreement with the Iranians.

The National Jewish Democratic Council says this transparent effort to politicize the deal is offensive. Yes but where is Chuck Schumer?

And where are the Israel liberals? They have their own poison pill. Ynet says that the expected Israeli opposition, the Zionist Camp, supposed liberals in the legislature, are demanding that the U.S. agree to incorporate an Israeli military attack on Iran into the deal if Israel doesn’t like the way the deal works out. Notice that the Israeli opposition are as spoiled-child as Netanyahu; they think they should have a back channel into the negotiations thru the U.S.

Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni laid out their Iranian policy on Sunday and called for a “comprehensive, intimate and in-depth strategic discussion with the US” on nuclear talks between world powers and Iran, saying all issues on the table must be clarified with Washington before a final agreement is signed with Tehran.

The crux of Herzog and Livni’s plan is a call on the American administration to commit in advance to approve an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Iran violates the framework agreement signed a week and a half ago by trying to produce nuclear weapons.

This story is further evidence of what a rightwing society Israel is.

Thanks to Max Blumenthal and Dylan Williams‘s twitter feeds.

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one way to solve this issue once and forever is to pass legislation that demands any agreement the US makes with anyone anywhere, domestic and foreign have an amendment attached requiring all signatories to affirm israel’s right to exist. then we wouldn’t have to have these little debates all the time threatening to divide us.

….laid out their Iranian policy on Sunday and called for a “comprehensive, intimate and in-depth strategic discussion with the US” on nuclear talks between world powers and Iran, saying all issues on the table must be clarified with Washington before a final agreement is signed with Tehran.

maybe the US should have “comprehensive, intimate and in-depth strategic discussion[s]” with israel about …everything. maybe we shouldn’t pass any legislation or make any kinds of decisions domestic or foreign without these kinds of comprehensive discussions with the israelis.

we could probably simplify matters by just closing up shop and leaving everything to the israelis. since their such good managers. it just seems like a waste of time and money to have US elections when the knesset or aipac could run the show. they’d probably be up for it too. all we’d have to do is fork over the doe, heck let them run the friggin place.

Meanwhile, Israel has yet to acknowledge Palestine’s right to exist. Why is Israel’s recognition more worthy than Palestine’s?

The crux of Herzog and Livni’s plan is a call on the American administration to commit in advance to approve an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if Iran violates the framework agreement signed a week and a half ago by trying to produce nuclear weapons.

Nuclear-equipped Israel and the U.S. can’t seem to stop making existential threats against an already heavily-sanctioned and nuclear-unequipped Iran…and still some people wonder why Iran might be tempted to acquire nukes.

The definition of a political hack is a politician who legislates or decides on the basis of personal/political interests over the good of those he or she represents. Rubio, Cotton, Lindsey Graham andMenendez are illustrative examples of the circle of hacks. Jeb Bush and Chuck Schumer each has one big toe still outside of it. Give them time.

No country which is in breach of so many resolutions of the UNSC, is continually expanding and cannot describe where its borders are, cannot have a right to exist. Even having an agreed border within International law, does not mean ‘any’ state has a right to exist. For instance if Scotland had voted for independence at the recent referendum and left the UK, the UK as it exists today, would cease to exist.