Roger Cohen, a New York Times’ columnist who focuses on
foreign policy, wrote a piece today that holds Congressman Sandy Levin up as a
serious thinker who approached the Iran nuclear deal in a way that should have
been emulated by all on Capitol Hill.
Levin, a Royal Oak Democrat who represents portions of
Macomb and Oakland counties, did not let his Jewish heritage and affinity with
Israel overly sway him, the columnist wrote. The lawmaker concluded that the
Iran deal is good for America.
“Representative Sander M. Levin, Democrat of Michigan and
the longest-serving Jewish member of Congress, said something important this
week: ‘In my view, the only anchors in public life are to dig deeply into the
facts and consult broadly and then to say what you believe.’
defied a prevalent political culture of ignoring inconvenient facts, consulting
narrowly if at all, and never saying what you believe when it’s not what your
constituency wants to hear. Second, his statement concerned Iran, an issue
where fact-based reasoning on Capitol Hill and beyond tends to take second
place to preposterous posturing — as per Republican presidential candidate Mike
Huckabee’s statement that the nuclear deal with Tehran would march Israelis ‘to
the door of the oven.’
conclusion that the agreement is ‘the best way to achieve’ the goal of
preventing Iran from advancing toward a nuclear weapon, an outcome that will
make Israel, the Middle East and the world ‘far more secure.’ Not the ideal
way, the perfect way, or a foolproof way, but, in the real world of
ineradicable Iranian nuclear know-how, the best way attainable. That is also
the view of other parties to the deal — the not insignificant or unserious
powers of Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.”
