Why Israel must fight the Iran Deal in Congress and Senate

By MATAN ASHER
''The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see'' (Winston Churchill)
Current situation concerning the Iran deal does not seem so promising for Israel.
Thus far, the only democratic senator who stated his rejection of the deal is Chuck Schumer.
President Obama's strength has always been his rhetoric, his ability to persuade others that he knows what he is doing, in spite of his lack of experience and success regarding the Middle East. He succeeded, it seems, to have the majority of democratic senators to support the deal, so it looks like senate will not able to overrule his veto after republican majority will vote against it.
Many Israelis and American supporters of Israel ask themselves right now:
What benefit comes for PM Netanyahu to continue his efforts in Senate and Congress?
Doesn't it undermine the bipartisan support for Israel in the U.S?
Moreover, they ask themselves, what should Israel be doing looking forward?
As last centuries' greatest leader, Winston Churchill said - in order to think about the future, we need to learn from the past, for history always repeats itself. First, we will take a closer look at the very foundations of the Israeli-American alliance.
In his great book 'From Truman to Obama', Prof. Avraham Ben Zvi explains that the alliance had always been affected by two important patterns. The first one is the 'National Security' pattern, which includes within the perception of American administrations throughout the years about Israel's role in the Middle East, and how it can promote the American interest in the region. This perception, as we will show here, has not always been in coherence with the Israeli interest.
The second is the 'Special relationship' pattern, which has always been the strongest and exemplifies the shared values, ideologies, cultures and traditions of both nations.
The best example is the verse taken from the Bible, engraved on the Liberty Bell:
''Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof ''.
Exactly like the Jewish people coming out of Egypt to the Promised Land, the Mayflower was on its way to the modern Promised Land, which is the United States of America.
That is the reason why Presidents Washington and Adams, were called 'Moses' and 'Joshua', and that is also why 300 years later, Israel still gets the astounding number of 72 % support within the American people.
However, the national interest of America does not always matches the interest of Israel.
When Israel was established, it was against his own state department that President Truman was the first leader to acknowledge it. When Israel was threatened by all Arab states in the region in 1967, President Johnson warned the Israelis not to be the first one to attack. In 1973, President Nixon and Secretary of State Kissinger stalled the delivery of weapons requested by the Israelis; all of those not because they were against Israel, and this is something we must understand: It was because the Americans had different interests in the region.
As per the warnings of losing the bipartisan support, it is not the first time we are hearing about it: In 1975 President Ford announced that there would be a 'reassessment' regarding the American-Israeli support, announcement that was soon followed by a letter of support to Israel by three quarters of the Senate. Now, After looking at the past, we can surely think about the future. What we need to understand regarding the Iran Deal is that Israel does not Lobby against it because PM Netanyahu wants to improve his connections with Republicans or because he sees it as a personal rivalry with President Obama. The reason is, that a bad deal does not mean the destruction of America, but an atomic bomb surely poses an existential to the only Jewish state in the world.
Israel HAS to lobby against the deal. The war with Iran has been a long marathon, and like running a marathon sometimes you are up, you are powerful and got your strength, but sometimes you are weak and in danger of retiring.
Secretary of state Kerry said yesterday that there would be no automatic sanctions against Iran in case they violate the terms of the deal. Well, they have already done it: Iranian military mastermind Qasem Soleimani has visited Russia two weeks ago, a clear violation of the terms of the deal.
What should be made clear right now, for every Congressman and Senator, it the fact that this agreement does not stand in coherence with the American interest; It endangers the entire Middle East and puts a serious threat to both Israel and other allies of America here.
The battle against Iran does not end with Obama, and as Churchill has said: 'This is not the end, not even the beginning of the end'. As a sovereign state who has been fighting for its own existence from the very start, Israel has no other option BUT to fight this deal, and as we have seen in the past, at the end it is the 'Special Relations' pattern which gets the upper hand.