I can’t stand Bibi but he’s right on Iran, says eminent US intellectual

[Valin]

Times of Israel:

Leon Wieseltier talks tough on Netanyahu (‘dislike at first sight’), Obama being the first president to not have a special feeling for Israel, the dangers from Tehran, and presidential candidates ‘sucking up’ to America’s Jews

Raphael Ahren

August 12, 2015

 

WASHINGTON — Defending his vocal opposition to the Iran nuclear deal during a recent briefing with Israel’s diplomatic correspondents, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited an article by Leon Wieseltier, an American-Jewish intellectual who is usually fiercely critical of his policies. “There is an American journalist who has incessantly attacked me for decades. This man hasn’t written a single good word about me in the 30 years we know each other. And yet, he agrees with me that this is a bad deal,” Netanyahu said.

 

Last week, speaking to the same group of Israeli reporters at the sidelines of a baseball game in Washington, DC, Wieseltier endorsed both his dislike for Netanyahu the person and his support for Netanyahu the opponent of the nuclear agreement.

 

“I’ve almost never written a good word about him, so he’s right not to like me,” Wieseltier, one of America’s leading political commentators, said.

 

“But I agree with Bibi on Iran. He is right about the deal.”

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

'Schindler's List' Producer Takes On 98 Hollywood Jews Over Iran Deal

Paul Bond
8/14/2015 7:46pm PDT

 

Gerald Molen, the Oscar-winning producer of Schindler's List, has responded to 98 prominent Jews in Hollywood, including producers Norman Lear and Mike Medavoy, who published an open letter in support of President Barack Obama's proposed nuclear deal with Iran.

 

"Can we trust Iran? Do they not deny the Holocaust? Do they not invest in terror organizations?" Molen asks in an email sent to LAJewishLeadersForIranDeal@gmail.com, an email account set up by the 98 Hollywood Jews who support Obama's plan.

 

(Snip)

 

"How much of their new-found largesse will be used to kill innocents?" Molen asks. "How much of it will be spent on child-size, bomb-laden vests for the indoctrinated young to climb on a bus, enter a marketplace or a theater and go boom? Israel must be very wary and each of the signers must surely know that. Shouldn't they?"

 

(Snip)

 

Despite Molen's bona fides as one of the industry's more successful producers — Rain Man, Twister and Jurassic Park are also on his resume — he is oftentimes out of step politically with famously liberal Hollywood. In fact, he executive-produced 2016: Obama's America, the very successful documentary that was critical of the Democratic president, supported financially and otherwise, by much of Hollywood.

 

Molen ends his email to the 98 supporters with: "It is our president who defies the reality of Islamic terrorists and their ongoing promise to destroy Israel. While the letter-signers stand with him, I will stand for liberty and freedom and Israel."