re: #375 bratwurst

Amazingly, some pro-Israel Republican Senators are not pro-Israel enough for Aipac now.

That’s not actually what AIPAC is saying:

At issue is the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, a bipartisan bill authored by the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker. Earlier this month, the bill was voted out of Corker’s committee unanimously, with strong support from Democrats and a promise from President Barack Obama not to veto the bill if it reached his desk without amendments that he said could imperil the Iran nuclear negotiations.

Senate staff members tell us that since Monday, senior Aipac lobbyists and board members have had face-to-face meetings and phone calls with leading senators to try to dissuade lawmakers from voting for the Republican amendments.

But that is an awkward place to be for the largest pro-Israel lobby in Washington. Senator Marco Rubio, for example, filed an amendment Thursday evening requiring Obama to certify that Iran has publicly recognized Israel’s right to exist as a condition of getting Congressional approval of the Iran deal. Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a similar idea, but Obama said such a demand would wreck the negotiations. Aipac is now taking Obama’s side on whether a final nuclear accord with Iran should compel its regime to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Aipac supports Corker’s bill as is. Earlier this year, it quietly dropped its campaign to get Congress to pass new sanctions on Iran latched onto a previous version of the chairman’s legislation. Corker’s new bill, which has added concessions to Obama, would give Congress a chance to review an Iran deal and could provide for a vote on the deal, although language inserted at the last minute makes clear that Obama could begin implementing the agreement even if Congress votes against it.

So AIPAC is trying to prevent to attachment of ‘killer’ amendments. That good, but I do feel the bill needs an amendment such that Congress can keep sanctions in place if they vote the deal down.