Jewish umbrella groups have asked constituents to recruit non-Jewish supporters to an anti-Iran coalition.
A letter sent Dec. 14 by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and United Jewish Communities was spurred by a U.S. spy assessment playing down the Iranian nuclear threat. The National Intelligence Estimate issued last week said Iran had shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003, a revelation seized upon by opponents of intensifying the tough U.S. posture against Iran. The letter to Jewish groups suggested that the NIE had underemphasized Iran’s continuing threat.
Raising a broad-based coalition to confront Iran is “now all the more essential, as difficult as it may now be for such a body to be brought into being,” the letter said. “We are reaching out to you to think of those organizations and individuals in the broader community you believe would be prepared to add their names and join in coalition efforts to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons, to advocate for economic and diplomatic efforts, and to help advance greater awareness of the Iranian threat.”
The new coalition will be called the American Coalition Against a Nuclear Iran.
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