Top Jewish Democratic senators are pressing AIPAC to back the new START arms reduction treaty with Russia.
Four Jewish groups already back Senate ratification of the treaty as a means of cajoling Russia into isolating Iran. Another has suggested that it could prove helpful, and one group opposes it.
AIPAC rarely backs such initiatives publicly, but what’s been notable in this case is that it has not taken a position behind the scenes either.
The treaty is “an opportunity to improve relations with Russia, a nation that has provided considerable support for U.S.-led efforts to pressure Iran,” Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) wrote AIPAC director Howard Kohr in a Nov. 30 letter obtained and published by Politico. Levin chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The letter continued, “Last spring, Russia voted in favor of the U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Iran. This fall, Russian President [Dmitry] Medvedev agreed not to fulfill a previously agreed-upon sale of air defense missiles to Iran.”
The decision by a handful of GOP senators to block START came after the election, in which the Democrats lost the House of Representatives to the Republicans. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who has led the opposition, says that upon review the treaty lacks sufficient verification mechanisms and would unnecessarily reduce the U.S. profile in Europe. — jta