Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. speaks at the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference in National Harbor, Md., Thursday, March 6, 2014. Rubio said the US is the one nation that can rally people around the globe against the rise of totalitarian governments. (AP/Susan Walsh)
While the Senate’s upcoming Iran bill, aiming to give Congress veto power over any pact negotiated by the P5+1, already put the deal in serious jeopardy, a new amendment to it proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R – FL) seems to be the silver bullet that will kill any chance of the deal.
The Rubio Amendment would require that any nuclear deal with Iran include an explicit public endorsement from Iran of Israel’s status as a “Jewish state.”
There had been previous mentions of getting Iran to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as such, though the inclusion of endorsing their “Jewish state” status is even more problematic, as it is tantamount to supporting the status of Israel’s religious minorities as second-class citizens. Many nations, particularly in the Middle East, would balk at such a declaration.
On the other hand, the massive influence of the Israeli Lobby within the US Congress virtually ensures a large amount of support for such an amendment from both parties. This is true in spite of AIPAC, one of the largest such lobbying groups, opposing making the Iran deal about Israel.
For hawks like Rubio, the unacceptability of the Israel clause is very much the point, as it not only places a threatened veto on any Iran deal, but ensures that no deal can ever be reached.