Before yesterday (July 22), I had both endorsed and urged others to attend the “Stop Iran Now” rally in Times Square (“Fault Lines Widen as Iran Debate Intensifies,” July 24).
Clearly, I joined many Americans who believe the negotiated agreement which provides Iran, the greatest threat to international security and the largest state sponsor of terrorism, with $150 billion of cash, is not a good deal for our country, for Israel, or for the world. Yet to my dismay what should have been a uniting rally against Iran and a forum to urge our members of Congress to reject the deal overwhelmingly, quickly became an anti -Chuck Schumer, anti-Hillary Clinton and anti-Barak Obama bash.
I am not a fan of most of the president’s policies and certainly would prefer to see Sen. Schumer and Secretary Clinton come out strongly against the capitulating deal with Iran. But to hear the majority of the speakers attack Democrats, rather than Iran, did nothing but disgust me and many of the people who were around me.
What a sad statement about political discourse in the United States when a topic as urgent as keeping nuclear weapons away from radical Iran and preventing billions of dollars being poured into terrorism becomes an opportunity to engage in derogatory and divisive rhetoric. Shame on those speakers who engaged in such tactics and shame on the organizers who allowed it. I will strongly urge my representatives in Congress to vote down this poorly conceived deal, but I will also apologize to them for the unnecessary vitriol of the rally.
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