There was a better way: how the Iran nuclear deal collapsed

(JTA) In 2015, when my consulting firm organized the No Nukes for Iran Project to support the JCPOA — the Iran nuclear deal — we didn’t do so because we trusted Tehran. We did it because we trusted physics.

Uranium enrichment is not a talking point. Centrifuges don’t care about TV jawboning and politicos’ soundbites. And the mullahs who run the brutal regime might be even more inured to the chest-beating of our own fanatics.

We raised and spent over $1 million dollars to help make the case for the JCPOA ( Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) back then because a negotiated framework constraining Iran’s nuclear activity was better than the fantasy alternative of total dismantlement on demand. The issue was very fraught, particularly in the American Jewish communal space we inhabit, and so we had to develop a thick skin. But we developed a broad-based coalition to back the Obama administration-negotiated accord, among American Jews and the American public at large, including wavering Congressional Democrats.