Iran Debate Devolves With Charges Of ‘Dual Loyalty’ And ‘Dog Whistles’

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The dredging up of the dual loyalty charge — that lawmakers who reject the Iran nuclear agreement and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is lobbying against it, are more closely aligned with Israel than the United States — illustrates just how tense the debate over the deal has become.

The charge came to the fore after Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., the highest-ranking Jewish Democrat in the Senate, announced last week that he was opposing the deal reached July 14 between Iran and six world powers. A weekly cartoon on Daily Kos, a liberal website, depicted Schumer as a woodchuck, and in the course of a TV interview, the flag in the woodchuck’s office changes from American to Israeli and the moderator, a basset hound, calls Schumer a traitor. The cartoonist, Eric Lewis, has had drawings published in the New Yorker.

The cartoon has drawn outraged responses.

“There is room for a legitimate debate on the Iran deal, however charges” of disloyalty “against Senator Schumer — and any other members who articulate on fact-based but alternative views — are beyond inappropriate,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the new national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Times of Israel.

With most Republicans against the deal, Democrats have become the battleground — and Schumer has been under especially intense scrutiny. Congress has until late September to decide whether to reject the agreement.

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http://www.jta.org/2015/08/11/news-opinion/politics/iran-debate-devolves-with-charges-of-dual-loyalty-and-dog-whistles

[Tom Rinaldo]

1. Right or Wromg, this was entirely predictable

The current Israeli government and its American allies have been playing with fire regrading Israel's long term security interests by intervening so overtly into American politics, along increasingly partisan lines. Anyone who could not predict an eventual inevitable backlash has their head in the sand. Israel is burning through a once deep reservoir of American good will faster than Las Vegas is depleting that regions water table. The current generation of Democratic political leaders is overwhelmingly pro-Israel for varied reasons, but it is increasingly difficult for younger Democrat to equally be so moved.