What’s the difference between Iran, the United States, and Israel? Not much, according to Representative Jim Moran (D-VA).
Asked by host Bruce DePuyt about his “reaction to the missile tests this week,” Moran said his reaction “is the same as my reaction to Israel’s provocative display about a week earlier.”
Last month, The New York Times reported that Israel carried out a military drill over the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Israeli officials have not publicly commented on the exercise, but have expressed serious concerns about Iran’s nuclear program.
“This is saber rattling, and I don’t think it’s responsible or productive for either party, and I don’t think we should be threatened,” Moran said. “We should all sit down and be more adult about this. Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. Iran is very unlikely to attack Israel, there’s no one else in the region that they would have any reason to attack.”
“This is wrong and immature for Iran,” Moran said later, “it’s wrong and immature for the United States, and to some extent Israel to be engaging in this kind of counterproductive saber rattling.”
Moran is simply unable to condemn Iran without condemning America and Israel, too. The Congressman, as his comments indicate, demonstrates a blatant disregard for fact: Iran poses a real existential threat to Israel. What makes its zealous quest for nuclear power frightening is the same reason that Iran must be called what it is: evil. The president of Iran prays for the concomitant death of Jews and destruction of Israel. So for Moran to equate Israel and America with Iran is to suggest that the three have committed just as egregious actions.
Sadly, Moran’s mistake is not exclusive to him; it’s indicative of broader trends of thinking among a certain segment of the Left. This radical sect (like its magazine of opinion, which James Kirchick wrote about earlier this week) has strayed far from its roots.
