White House urges Jewish leaders not to lobby for new Iran sanctions
White House urges Jewish leaders not to lobby for new Iran sanctions | JPost | Israel News.
White House national security advisor Susan Rice, her deputies Ben Rhodes and Tony Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with the leaders of four major American Jewish organizations on Tuesday afternoon in an effort to dissuade them from lobbying the Senate towards passing harsh new sanctions against Iran, just as bilateral negotiations have resumed between the two nations.
The White House meeting witnessed forceful exchanges between the two sides on the merits of the sanctions package, sources tell The Jerusalem Post.
The afternoon meeting lasted over an hour and was characterized as a “serious exchange” over strategy during this delicate diplomatic window.
One White House official called the meeting “constructive” and said no animus was expressed.
In recent days a number of leading Jewish groups, including AIPAC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the Jewish Federations of North America, have reiterated support for advancing through Congress new and enhanced Iran sanctions, although the Obama administration has made clear publicly that it would prefer Congress put off dealing with the legislation until after the next round of talks in mid-November.
JTA contributed to this report.
WarSclerotic 
October 30, 2013 at 12:48 PM
Looking at the picture above : Is Mr Obama really leaving the WH ? That would be GOOOOOOD NEWS ! But dont worry, that day will come for sure, for his destiny is in the hands of the Guardian of Israel too…..Mr Obama is just trying to ignore that fact of all facts….Never change a winning team : Israel forever ! (please get me right : I would have been more than happy to see an afro-american like Martin Luther King in the WH – its such a tragedy that Mr Obama is not only betraying the white americans but he is first of all betraying the black americans ! The black americans would really have deserved better after all ! But I go so far as to say that I feel sorry for Mr Obama – I cant imagine that he is a happy man – living on the strings of others may go well some time, but this can change.I really think I should start to pray for him that his eyes may be opened….).
October 30, 2013 at 12:50 PM
How do you educate these Jewish leaders? Let’s try.
Peter Robinson:
Quote, quoting you .. If Iran gets the bomb it is hard , if not impossible, to see how a nuclear exchange between Iran and Israel could be avoided” Close quote
Now you know the answer to that . The Soviet Union had the bomb and we had the bomb and we sat facing each other for four and a half decades and did not engage in a nuclear exchange.
Norman Podhoretz:
I will give you Bernard Lewis’s answer to that question and than I will give you my own. Bernard Lewis points out that deterrence worked with the Soviets and the Chinese because the Soviets were not suicidal and they knew that if they launched a first strike there would be a second strike tha which would annihilate them — mutual assured destruction
Peter Robinson:
And it worked
Norman Podhoretz
Mutual Assured Destruction can’t work in relation to Iran because these are people who are in love with death
Bernard Lewis:
For them it is not a deterrent, it is an inducement
Peter Robinson:
Truly? Truly?
Norman Podhoretz:
Now I will give you my answer to this. That’s’ Bernard’s answer to the question My answer to the question is to imagine a scenario which most people are horrified . I’ve tried this all the time , people shy away from it. Imagine that Iran gets the bomb. OK and the Israelis are siting there and asking themselves, do we wait for them to hit us and then retaliate out of the rubble or do we preempt it first? The Iranians are asking themselves the same question. Do we wait for the Israelis to hit us or do we hit them first . We’ve never had a hair trigger situation like that since the invention of nuclear weapons . If you just imagine the rulers of Iran asking themselves that question . Somebody is gonna beat the other to the punch . And I can’t see that unstable situation lasting for very long, maybe even as along as a few weeks or months
Bernard Lewis and Norman Podhoretz on Iran and MAD
http://www.madisdead.blogspot.co.il/2013/10/bernard-lewis-and-norman-podhortz-on.html