Experts Debate Whether “Obama’s Iran Deal is Good for America”
Recently, “Intelligence Squared U.S.” held a debate on the nuclear deal currently being negotiated between the United States (along with Great Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia) and Iran.
Philip Gordon, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former senior advisor to President Obama as coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf Region, and Tom Pickering, who served five decades as a U.S. diplomat including positions as Undersecretary of State for political affairs and Ambassador to the U.N. as well as to Russia, Israel, and Jordan, argued that “Obama’s Iran deal is good for America.”
Arguing that the deal is not good were Mike Doran, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and former senior director in the National Security Council, and Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies where he also heads its Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance.
Intelligence Squared U.S. presents debates on a wide range of provocative topics and aims “to provide a new forum for intelligent discussion, grounded in facts and informed by reasoned analysis; to transcend the toxically emotional and the reflexively ideological; and to encourage recognition that the opposing side has intellectually respectable views.”
The debate winner is determined by audience votes. The audience voted on the proposition that “Obama’s Iran deal is good for America” before the debate and again after the debate. The winner is the side that most increased its share of the vote. In other words, who swayed the most voters? The motion was defeated and the audience voted that the deal is not good for America.
You can read the transcript here or watch the debate here.
The debate is lengthy but certainly worthwhile.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Double Standards: Boycotts and Discrimination in MassLive
May 16, 2025
Anti-Israel activists, including Harvard University’s Lara Jirmanus, a clinical instructor, seem to struggle with the concept of “discrimination.” Quoted in a May 14 MassLive article, “Harvard ‘failed to respond’ to 450 discrimination complaints. Staff hand-delivered [...]
Swarthmore Students Are Learning: It Was Never About Palestinian Rights
May 14, 2025
Students at Swarthmore College are so close to understanding the conflict. An article in the Swarthmore Phoenix details the frustrations of student activists with the college’s Students for Justice in Palestine. The gist of their criticism is [...]
AFP Arabic Stops Mislabeling Northern Israeli Communities ‘Settlements”
August 10, 2021
A view of Metulla, northern Israel (Photo by Hadar Sela)After failing to set the record straight last May when Agence France Presse's Arabic service repeatedly referred to Jewish communities in northern Israel as "settlements," the [...]
NY Times Praises Ilhan Omar’s Book While Glossing Over Her Antisemitism
August 19, 2020
A recent New York Times book review boosts Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) autobiography while glossing over her antisemitism. In the paper’s Aug. 16, 2020 edition, NYT reporter Christina Cauterucci writes: The memoir offers breathing room [...]
When TV Interviews of Ilhan Omar Constitute Journalistic Malpractice
August 11, 2020
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) documented animosity toward Jews and Israel was ignored in recent interviews by MSNBC and C-SPAN. MSNBC’s The Beat for July 23, 2020 included host Ari Melber’s 10-minute conversation at 6:16 [...]
Boston TV Station WCVB Teamed Up With Terrorist Supporter CAIR
July 7, 2020
WCVB-TV (channel 5) (Boston’s ABC network affiliate) recently misled area viewers about a matter involving antisemitic propaganda. This occurred on its local Sunday show Cityline hosted by Karen Holmes Ward who is described by the [...]
Harper’s Magazine Echoed Palestinian Propaganda Condemning Israel And America
June 2, 2020
Writing in Harper's, Kevin Baker condemns the U.S. Middle East peace plan [“The Striking Gesture,” Easy Chair, May 2020], mischaracterizing it as, “Give up all your [Palestinian] hopes and your holiest places, embark on a [...]