RJC: Feinstein's Comments on Israel Are Outrageous and Baseless

Washington, D.C. (January 15, 2014) — Today the Republican Jewish Coalition strongly rejected California Senator Dianne Feinstein's suggestion that S. 1881, the bipartisan Nuclear Weapons Free Iran Act (Kirk-Menendez), would "let Israel determine when and where the United States goes to war".  The RJC urged Senator Feinstein to retract and apologize for the remarks, made in a speech delivered on the Senate floor yesterday, which have already been amplified by anti-Israel and anti-Semitic commentators. 

RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said:

"Senator Feinstein is within her rights to disagree with a bipartisan majority of her colleagues who support Kirk-Menendez, but her suggestion that those colleagues have ceded control over 'when and where the United States goes to war' to Israel is outrageous, inflammatory and completely baseless. 

"The 'provision' of S. 1881 that Feinstein points to is carefully crafted and subject to a special additional provision making it clear that it does not provide an authorization for war in any contingency. 

"Moreover, the language of the provision Senator Feinstein cited is identical to language contained in S. Res.  65, which passed the Senate unanimously - and which Senator Feinstein cosponsored! 

"We are deeply troubled to see Senator Feinstein making such incendiary and inaccurate remarks on the Senate floor.  We call on her to retract this reckless and false charge and apologize to her colleagues and to the millions of Americans who support a comprehensive, robust strategy to prevent the Tehran regime from obtaining a nuclear weapons capability."