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MSNBC analyst Jonathan Alter argued Friday that the Barack Obama administration was not anti-Israel, citing as evidence Obama’s brokering of the Iran nuclear deal.
Alter took exception to Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton‘s statement that Obama was “the most anti-Israel president in American history” after not vetoing an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations. “There is more aid under President Obama than any other president. He has stood up for Israel repeatedly when it has been attacked,” Alter said.
“You have the nuclear deal with Iran, which according to Israeli intelligence senior officer, former head of Mossad and Shin Bet, is in the national security interest of Israel, because it helps protect Israel, which likely would have been the first target of an Iranian nuclear strike,” he also noted.
That former officer may think the Iranian nuclear deal is in Israel’s interest, but the actual Israeli intelligence apparatus has been harshly critical of the deal. Israeli leaders across the political spectrum condemned the Iran deal in apocalyptic terms, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “a sure path to nuclear weapons.”
Nor is Netanyahu alone in the matter. Polling at the time showed that 78% of Jewish Israelis opposed the Iran deal and believed it threatened the security of the nation.