Democrats to the Center,
Republicans to the Right
T he midterm elections are now a little more than
nine weeks away. What was once predicted to
be a resounding Republican recapture of the House
and the Senate is no longer quite so clear.
But there are some interesting trends that were
reinforced in last week’s primaries: Republicans
are voting for Trump-endorsed election deniers
but not so much if they aren’t Trump-endorsed;
and Democrats are leaning toward the center.
In New York’s District 12, the state’s botched
redistricting fi asco ended up pitting two prom-
inent and moderate Democratic incumbents —
Rep. Jerry Nadler and Rep. Carolyn Maloney
— against each other. Nadler won that race. In
nearby District 10, former federal prosecutor Dan
Goldman defeated progressive State Assembly
member Yuh-Line Niou and progressive incum-
bent Rep. Mondaire Jones. And in District 17,
moderate incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney
beat progressive state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi,
despite her endorsement by Rep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez. We saw a similar result last month in the Michigan
Democratic primary in a battle of two incumbents,
where moderate Rep. Haley Stevens beat pro-
gressive Rep. Andy Levin. And in Minnesota, pro-
gressive Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was nominated by
a wide margin in 2020, barely beat out her centrist
Arizona lawmaker Mark Finchem won the
Republican nomination for secretary of state.
Finchem denies that President Joe Biden
won the 2020 election.
opponent in the 2022 primary.
If these and other Democratic results point to
a tentative, but welcome, shift to party modera-
tion, Republican results appear to be shifting to
the right-wing fringe, where a Trump endorse-
ment carries great weight and the assertion that
President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election is
taken as gospel.
Arizona is a good example. State lawmaker
Mark Finchem won the Republican nomination
for secretary of state. Finchem is an election
denier who was endorsed by Trump. If he wins
in November, Finchem will oversee the state’s
Let’s Not Make a Deal
I srael Defense Minister Benny Gantz was in
Washington last weekend to brief think tank
directors on Israel’s objections to the latest draft of
a potential deal between the United States and Iran
on Iran’s nuclear program.
His argument was simple: Iran’s nuclear know-
how and infrastructure are irreversible. And
if existing centrifuges are stored rather than
destroyed as part of a new deal, they will be
available to enrich uranium once the proposed
agreement expires in 2031 — or immediately, if
Iran chooses to do so.
Beyond that, no one has explained why there
is any reason to believe that Tehran will be any
more compliant with International Atomic Energy
Agency regulations and investigators in 2022
than it was under the 2015 version of the deal.
Of course, that concern may be irrelevant, since
multiple sources maintain that Iran’s enrichment
capabilities have advanced to the point where it
could produce a nuclear bomb within a matter of
weeks, if it wants to.
12 SEPTEMBER 1, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
But even if those reports are incorrect, and
Iran needs a lot more work before being ready
to produce and deploy a nuclear weapon, is it
reasonable for the U.S. to trust Iran to comply
with the terms of any new deal? This is, after all,
the same regime that harbors and promotes the
Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, the terror mon-
gers who, according to the Justice Department,
off ered a $300,000 reward for the killing of for-
mer Trump national security adviser John Bolton
and a second reward for killing former Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo. Are these the honorable
people the U.S. government should trust?
We’re skeptical. Nonetheless, even if there is
good reason to believe that Iran will comply with
inspection and assessment measures of IAEA,
and a genuine belief that Iran will abide fully by
restrictions regarding further nuclear develop-
ment, we still don’t understand what sense it
makes to lift Western sanctions and free up the
regime’s access to more than $100 billion in fro-
zen assets.
election processes and will be the fi rst in line to
succeed the governor, since the state has no lieu-
tenant governor.
In Florida, Cory Mills, a defense contractor who
won the Republican nomination for a U.S. House
seat, has also questioned Biden’s 2020 victory.
The same is true for Florida House nominee Anna
Paulina Luna, who was endorsed by Trump and
also boasted campaign backing from Georgia Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene of Jewish space laser fame.
Compare those results with the Republican
elected offi cials that voters tossed out. For exam-
ple, we wrote last week about Rep. Liz Cheney of
Wyoming. Another Republican punished by vot-
ers is Rusty Bowers, speaker of Arizona’s House
of Representatives. Like Cheney, Bowers is pro-
life, pro-gun, pro-small government and a former
Trump supporter. He is also one of the people who
refused requests to overturn 2020 election results
in Arizona. He lost his seat to Trump-endorsed
David Farnsworth, who believes that the 2020
election had been stolen by the “devil himself.”
Such is the push and pull of today’s politics. We
are seeing a Democratic party strengthening its
center as the Republican Party races for the right.
While these primary results will present some
clear general election choices in November, it isn’t
yet clear which way America wants to go. JE
Were that to happen, Iran would have even
more resources to do all of the things we want
the country to stop doing — including further
pursuit of its nuclear ambitions, funding for the
international terror activities of IRGC and even
more support and encouragement for Hezbollah,
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are poised to
send deadly rockets into Israel and would like
nothing more than to upend the spreading sense
of acceptance of Israel as a legitimate partner in
both the Middle East and, more broadly, around
the world.
And fi nally, what would the U.S. get in return for
entering into a new Iran deal? Simply correcting a
perceived mistake by the Trump administration in
an eff ort to vindicate a fl awed deal of the Obama
administration doesn’t justify the move. We there-
fore encourage the Biden administration to aban-
don eff orts to recreate a 7-year-old deal that is
outdated and focus on charting a new course that
is refl ective of today’s realities and responsive to
today’s concerns. JE
GILI YAARI/FLASH90 PHOTO BY GAGE SKIDMORE / ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE 2.0 GENERIC
editorials
opinions & letters
A Second Iran Deal
Would Be Based on
Pure Fantasy
BY JOSEPH FRAGER
A merica is about to
sign off on a second
disastrous and foolhardy
nuclear deal with Iran.
Like Yogi Berra said, it’s
“déjà vu all over again.”
The same people who made the first bad
deal in 2015 are about to make another. The
only difference is that it is not Barack Obama
at the helm but President Joe Biden.
Once again, Israel’s concerns are not
being given the time of day. Biden has said
over and over again that he will not allow Iran
to acquire a nuclear weapon. He told this to
Israeli officials on his recent visit to Israel.
J Street’s Record Also Suspect
Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom shows chutzpah slamming
AIPAC when he represents the anti-Israel J Street (“AIPAC
Needs to Rethink Its Strategy Before It Does Any More
Damage,” Aug. 25). They call themselves pro-Israel, but
that’s a lie. Their record speaks for itself.
I do, however, agree with Rosenbloom that this business
of endorsing candidates is extremely unsettling to say the
least. Should AIPAC endorse the Squad, Bernie Sanders and
all so-called progressive Democrats that holler dispropor-
tionately when Israel defends itself? And should it ignore or
the timeline of North Korea’s agreements excuse Palestinian terrorism and support BDS and the Iran
and deals with the United States and the deal, as does J Street? I don’t have the answer, but neither
West from 1994 until its nuclear breakout in does Rosenbloom.
Zachary Margolies, Philadelphia
2006, one sees an eerie reminder of Iran’s
actions. The difference, however, is that Iran is
in the Middle East. Although South Korea Substitute J Street for AIPAC
is central to America’s interests, the Gulf Regarding Rabbi Seymour Rosenbloom’s op-ed (“AIPAC
states and Israel are game changers. The oil Needs to Rethink Its Strategy Before It Does Any More
states have all joined Israel via the Abraham Damage,” Aug. 25), one could substitute “J Street” for
Accords to fend off Iranian aggression. Yes, “AIPAC” in the same headline.
Rosenbloom, who serves on J Street’s Rabbinic and
the Abraham Accords go much further and
deeper than that, but it was Iran’s nuclear Cantorial Cabinet, calls out AIPAC for endorsing and fund-
raising for Republicans in Congress who voted to overturn
ambitions that got the ball rolling.
Israel is not South Korea. It will not tolerate the 2020 election results, based on the claim that their votes
a nuclear Iran. There is no way of “contain- “openly threaten democratic rights and freedoms.”
Yet Rosenbloom is silent regarding his organization’s
ing” a nuclear Iran as some on the left have
proposed. I believe that the proponents endorsements of Democrats in Congress who voted for the
Iran agreement (the JCPOA). In a rare display of unity, Jewish
parties across Israel’s political spectrum opposed the JCPOA
because, by providing a legal pathway to Iran’s development
of a nuclear arsenal, the agreement constituted an existential
threat to the Jewish state.
The likely revival of the JCPOA by President Biden after
President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord in 2018
is drawing more attention to this threat. Indeed, on Aug. 24,
Mossad Director David Barnea referred to the imminent deal
as “a strategic disaster” for Israel.
Rosenbloom asserts that, by endorsing candidates who
voted to overturn the 2020 election results, “It’s long over-
of a second Iran deal actually believe con- due for AIPAC to think about the group’s actions.” How ironic
tainment is possible. This is sheer fantasy. since, by supporting candidates who voted for an agreement
Israel and the Gulf states will hold Biden to that is an existential threat to Israel, the same could be said
his promise that Iran will not be allowed to about Rosenbloom’s own organization.
Jerry Stern, Merion Station
acquire a nuclear weapon under his watch.
I have spoken to Israeli officials about how
long it would take to obliterate Iran’s nuclear
capabilities. The answer was always “a few
days.” These were high-level officials with Editorial Said Nothing
the intelligence to back up their statements. (“The Trump Effect,” Aug. 25) was a pretty useless editorial in
There have been reports of Israeli F-35 jets the sense that it took no stance about anything.
Is the Exponent afraid to take a stance regarding one of
flying over Iranian airspace. I don’t doubt it.
Biden is determined to sign a second Iran the most dangerous people in America? I thought that was
deal. It plays well in the left’s universe. It is what editorials did. Guess I was wrong. No guts; no glory.
not going to stop the Iranians from acquiring Very disappointing. JE
Frank L. Friedman, Philadelphia
a nuclear weapon. JE
The Iranians learned how to build a bomb and
fool the West from North Korea. Iran has been
following the same playbook for years.
The problem is that Iran is nearly at the
point of nuclear breakout and a nuclear
bomb is achievable in a very short time. No
deal is going to stop the Iranians at this point.
The deal will only be “smoke and mirrors.” In
a very important sense, a bad deal is worse
than no deal at all.
The two main American critics of the first
Iran deal, former National Security Advisor
John Bolton and former Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo now have Iranian bounties on
their heads.
The Iranians learned how to build a bomb
and fool the West from North Korea. Iran has
been following the same playbook for years.
All the while, it has used the $150 billion it
received from Obama as part of the 2015
deal to remain the number one state sponsor
of terrorism in the world.
North Korea had 40 nuclear weapons,
along with the ability to make at least seven
more per year and outfit its long-range mis-
siles with nuclear warheads. If one looks at
Dr. Joseph Frager is the chairman of Israel
advocacy for the Rabbinical Alliance of
America, chairman of the executive commit-
tee of American Friends of Ateret Cohanim
and executive vice president of the Israel
Heritage Foundation.
Letters should be related to articles that have run in the print
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