CAMERA Exposes Holes in Baltimore Sun commentary
The following letter to the editor was published in print by The Baltimore Sun on Sept. 7, 2015:
“Sean Durns
9/2/15
The Baltimore Sun
Letter to the editor:
Rabbi Floyd Herman’s commentary “The Iran nuclear agreement will make America and Israel safer” (September 2) misrepresents the views of former senior Israeli security officials quoted and poll data allegedly showing a majority of American Jews support the deal.
Rabbi Herman notes that Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service, has said the agreement “is the best possible alternative from Israel’s point of view given the other available alternatives.” However, in a July 26 interview with The Jerusalem Post, Ayalon makes clear that he begrudgingly supports the deal, declaring, “I think the deal is bad. It is not good.”
Similarly, Herman cites Efraim Halevy, former head of Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, to imply his agreement with the present nuclear deal. Yet, in a July 24 interview with Israel’s Channel 2, Halevy calls for a national debate and says, “This is not an agreement that is entirely bad. There are positive elements in it.”
These statements, equivocal or critical, hardly support Rabbi Herman’s assertion that these former officials feel “that this deal offers the best option for preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”
Herman also says “recent polling” shows a “majority of American Jews” support this present deal. Again, not exactly. In contrast to an early Los Angeles Jewish Journal poll, more recent surveys of American Jewish voters, by both The Israel Project and Quinnipiac University, indicate that the more American Jews learn about the deal, the less they like it—a trend that parallels other U.S. voters.
On an issue of paramount importance to all Americans, the positions of Israeli security officials and U.S Jewish voters are more nuanced and critical than Rabbi Herman’s commentary implies.
Durns is Media Assistant for CAMERA—the 65,000 member Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America”
The published version of the letter to the editor can be found here.—Sean Durns
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