Now Even AIPAC Says It's Not The Right Time To Advance Iran Sanctions Bill

Now Even AIPAC Says It's Not The Right Time To Advance Iran Sanctions Bill

The Huffington Post  | by  Ashley Alman

Posted:
02/06/2014 8:51 pm EST Updated: 02/06/2014
10:59 pm EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/06/aipac-iran-sanctions_n_4741748.html

WASHINGTON
-- American Israel Public Affairs Committee
changed course on Thursday, coming out against an immediate Senate vote on
new Iran sanctions, according to a statement obtained by The Hill.



Sen.
Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
author of the predominantly Republican-backed sanctions bill, took to the
Senate floor Thursday to encourage his colleagues not to let partisan politics
drive a vote on the matter. AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group,
expressed support for Menendez in a statement several hours later:

AIPAC commends Foreign Relations
Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) for his strong and eloquent
statement on the Senate floor today outlining the threat of Iran's nuclear
program and the imperative of dismantling it. We appreciate his commitment to
ensure that any agreement with Iran “is verifiable, effective, and prevents
them from ever developing even one nuclear weapon.”

We
applaud Senator Menendez’s determined leadership on this issue and his
authorship with Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) of the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act.
We agree with the Chairman that stopping the Iranian nuclear program should
rest on bipartisan support and that there should not be a vote at this time on
the measure. We remain committed to working with the Administration and the
bipartisan leadership in Congress to ensure that the Iran nuclear program is
dismantled.



On
Thursday, 42 Republican senators sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid (D-Nev.) demanding an immediate vote on sanctions against Iran, an effort
President Barack Obama has threatened to veto amid fragile nuclear
negotiations. Menendez later distanced himself from his Republican colleagues
on the Senate floor, expressing concern that the discussion has become "a
partisan political issue" rather than a sensitive issue of national
security.



“I
have long thought of this as a bipartisan national security issue -– not a
partisan political issue -– and at the end of the day a national security issue
that we must approach in a spirit of bipartisanship and unity, which has been
the spirit for which we have worked together on this matter," Menendez
said. "I hope that we will not find ourselves in a partisan process trying
to force a vote on a national security matter before its appropriate time.”



Requests
for comment from Kirk, the Republican cosponsor of the bill, and from Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who was among those signing the letter
pressing for fast action, were not immediately returned.



AIPAC
has completely reversed course on the issue. For months, the group had been
lobbying lawmakers hard to push the Iran sanctions bill, even launching an attack on one of its biggest allies, Rep.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), for not supporting it. Only in recent weeks
has AIPAC begun backing off in the face of
resistance from the White House and key Democratic lawmakers, including Reid.



"As
usual, Republicans overplayed their hand and it backfired," said a Senate
Democratic leadership aide.

COMMENTS:

For the first time
the President made the monkey to remain on the ground near his foot and not
seating on the head of the American nation. There is a say that if you allow
the monkey to jump to your head then the monkey would hit you on the head and
demand banana every minute. If you fail to give then it would slap you right
left and center.

All these days of
the century the previous US Presidents kept the ZIONOIST notorious monkeys on
their head out of fear of getting assassinated by the expert PMs of Israel
including the present indicted PM. 

But this president tightened the filthy Zionist
monkeys to stay near his shoes and enhanced the prestige and dignity of the American
Nation because it is the first time the AIPAC the venomous snake retreated.

May be for
the time being, but for sure this venomous snake may raise its head again. . Defense Minister,
CIA, and FBI should strengthen the security of the President until the full
tenure of the president in office and thereafter.