Support for Israel has been on the top of my agenda since I was a little boy. I have family in Israel. In my earliest time in Congress in the 1960s I was pushing to lift the embargo on selling arms to Israel. I care about Israel’s security because it is essential to our security, and the Iran agreement is good for America and good for Israel.
Good negotiators know when they have reached the point where one more step would push an adversary away from the table. That is where the negotiators for the P5+1 nations were when they agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran.
There is a naivete among those who think that if Congress votes a resolution of disapproval for the accord, talks will start anew from a position of strength. It is unlikely that any of our partners — China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom — would be willing to go back to the table. More likely, the Russians and Chinese — and perhaps the French — would drop sanctions altogether, bringing an immediate infusion of money into Iran.
The accord’s opponents say that Iran is not trustworthy and has been deceitful in the past. That is precisely why the agreement subjects Iran to strict inspections, putting all centrifuges and related infrastructure under International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring. IAEA inspectors will have access to all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, including underground sites. Inspectors also will have access to the supply chain that supports the nuclear program. The deal will eliminate 98 percent of Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile. Iran also will be required to grant IAEA inspectors access to investigate suspicious sites anywhere in the country.
The agreement is by no means perfect. But let us not reject the good in hopes of obtaining the perfect. Numerous Israeli security and military officials understand that, and that is why they, too, support this deal.
The Peace and Security Association is a nonpartisan nonprofit that represents hundreds of Israeli security experts, Israel Defense Forces veterans, former Mossad and Shin Bet officials and former Israeli police. The association recently stated that while the agreement “is not optimal, it should remove the immediate threat of an Iranian break-out leading to a nuclear military capability within a few months, as the situation without the agreement and prior to the interim agreement was evaluated. The agreement is expected to lengthen the break-out time to 12 months for at least 10 years.”
Amram Mitzna, a retired Israel Defense Forces major general and former member of Israel’s Knesset, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action “surprisingly good for Israel’s security” and said it imposes “the strictest inspections program in history.”
The former lead scientist at Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor, retired IDF Lt. Col. Uzi Even, said the agreement “was written by nuclear experts and blocks every path I know to the bomb. The Iranians may be celebrating, but they have in fact swallowed a very bitter pill, more so than they would like to let on.”
The deal’s opponents and supporters alike agree that a nuclear-armed Iran poses an existential threat to Israel, and indeed a threat to the entire region, if not the world. Support for this deal, with its stringent inspections requirements, will prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb for years to come, leaving Israel, the region and the world a safer place. Congress should support the agreement.
The alternative is no agreement, which is no limits on Iran’s capacity to go nuclear, no sanctions by any of our allies, except perhaps the United Kingdom, and no alternatives. That makes no sense.
Abner J. Mikva is the former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and served in the Illinois House and the U.S. House and was White House counsel in the Clinton administration.