Iran Deal Opens a Vitriolic Divide Among American Jews

 

 

Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, in 2014. Mr. Nadler has announced his support for the nuclear accord with Iran.

WASHINGTON — The attacks on Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, since he announced his support for the nuclear accord with Iran have been so vicious that the National Jewish Democratic Council and the Anti-Defamation League both felt compelled this week to publicly condemn Jewish voices of hate.

On the other side, three Jewish Democrats in the House who oppose the deal released a joint statement denouncing “ad hominem attacks and threats” against not only supporters like Mr. Nadler but also Jewish opponents, who have been accused of “dual loyalties” and treason.

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This August recess has not produced the kind of fiery town hall-style meetings that greeted lawmakers in 2009 before their vote on the Affordable Care Act, but in one small but influential segment of the electorate, Jewish voters, it has been brutal. Infighting among Jewish Americans may be nothing new, but the vitriol surrounding the accord between Iran and six world powers has become so intense that leaders now speak openly of long-term damage to Jewish organizations, and possibly to American-Israeli relations.

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Greg Rosenbaum, the chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council, raised such concerns this month at a private meeting between President Obama and Jewish groups. At the meeting, other Jewish leaders told Mr. Obama that his own rhetoric — framing the debate as a choice between diplomacy and war, and speaking of the money lining up against the deal — was only accelerating the corrosion.

“We are on the verge of fratricide in the Jewish community, and it has to stop,” said Mr. Rosenbaum, who spoke of Jews’ spurning organizational meetings, and even religious services, simply to avoid discussing Iran.

The animus is hard to miss. On his Facebook page, Mr. Nadler has been called a kapo: a Jew who collaborated with Nazis in the World War II death camps. One writer said he had “blood on his hands.” Another said he had “facilitated Obama’s holocaust.”

Dov Hikind, a New York State assemblyman, rented a double-decker bus this week; plastered the smiling face of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on it; and parked it in front of Mr. Nadler’s office. On Wednesday, he took six Auschwitz survivors to the office to condemn Mr. Nadler. Then, when groups including the Anti-Defamation League, which opposes the Iran deal, told him to back off, he delivered a mocking sympathy card and teddy bear on Thursday.

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“This immature, babyish, childish whining? Stop,” Mr. Hikind said in an interview. “I’m just getting started.”

Mr. Nadler said it pained him both to have his pro-Israel credentials questioned and to see Jewish lawmakers who oppose the deal face questions about their patriotism.

He cited a cartoon on the liberal website Daily Kos, which lampooned Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, as a traitorous rodent for opposing the pact, as an example of blunt anti-Semitism from the left. (Mr. Schumer made a statement of his own, defending Mr. Nadler as “one of the most steadfast supporters of Israel’s security.”)

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“I’ve been accused of being treacherous, treasonous, even disloyal to the United States,” said Representative Nita M. Lowey of New York, one of a half-dozen Jewish Democrats who have come out against the Iran deal.

Andy Bachman — a prominent progressive rabbi who until recently led Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn, in Mr. Nadler’s district — called the discourse “horribly gut-wrenching.”

“Most Jews I know cringe at these very public battles and the ways in which we can be quite cruel toward each other,” he said.

In an open letter this week, Ms. Lowey, Eliot L. Engel and Steve Israel, all Jewish Democrats from New York opposed to the deal, wrote, “No matter where you stand on the Iran deal, comparisons to the Holocaust, the darkest chapter in human history; questioning the credentials of longstanding advocates for Israel; and accusations of dual loyalty are inappropriate.”

David G. Greenfield, a Brooklyn city councilman who represents part of Mr. Nadler’s district, was unapologetic. An Orthodox Jew, he said he had received “many calls” from supporters urging him to run against Mr. Nadler, which he has declined to do.

“This isn’t just another vote,” Mr. Greenfield said before a rally against the deal Wednesday evening. “I actually believe, and my constituency believes, that this is a matter of life and death.”

“We can’t just simply say, ‘O.K., we’re going to agree to disagree,’ and move on,” he said.

Beyond the name-calling is real concern about geopolitical implications. With momentum on Mr. Obama’s side, the chances that Congress can scuttle the deal appear remote, and Mr. Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said leaders in both parties needed to look at new security policies for Israel and the Middle East if the accord goes into force.

The agreement is likely to foreclose Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon for at least 15 years, even many opponents say, but the lifting of economic sanctions will give Iran more cash that it could use to destabilize the region, support terrorism and assert its authority.

“Whether this passes, whether this fails, we always have to be looking at next steps,” Mr. Engel said. “And there has to be a rapprochement between the United States and Israel. There just has to be.”

But the bitterness of the current debate will make that difficult. Mr. Israel said that Republican leaders had begun exploiting the rift among American Jews when Speaker John A. Boehner invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to address Congress in March, and that “partisan Republicans will continue to squeeze the sponge.”

“Republicans who barely knew where Israel was on a map are the new David Ben-Gurions,” he said, referring to Israel’s first prime minister.

The Jewish left can be equally unforgiving. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a Jewish political advocacy group that backs the Iran deal, spoke of a fundamental break between Democratic Party leaders inclined toward diplomacy and the worldview of a conservative Israeli government that has more in common with Dick Cheney than the former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. That will not change even if congressional efforts to kill the accord fail, Mr. Ben-Ami said.

“This is a clash of epic proportions reflecting fundamentally different worldviews,” he said. “You can’t paper over that difference anymore.”

Mr. Israel said such concerns were overstated. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, a battle broke out over the administration’s plans to sell advanced airplane-based radar called airborne warning and control systems to Saudi Arabia. At that time, Mr. Israel was a pro-Israel activist working against those plans and warning of a fundamental shift of American allegiance from Israel to the Persian Gulf states.

“People said this was a breach that would never be repaired, and within a year, no one remembered what Awacs stood for,” he said, laughing.

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