A prominent human rights group is calling on President Barack Obama and lawmakers to denounce anti-Semitic attacks on those Jewish individuals who have come out against the recently signed Iran nuclear deal.
Obama administration officials and allies have come under fire in recent weeks for alleging that Jewish Americans who oppose the deal have a dual loyalty to Israel and put the Jewish state’s interests before America’s.
The rhetoric has widely been condemned as anti-Semitic in nature.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Wednesday called on the White House and its allies to flatly denounce these attacks, which have been leveled at Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and other members of Congress who oppose the deal.
"The spectacle of labeling Senator Schumer and other opponents of the controversial Iran Nuclear deal as ‘warmongers’ who are more loyal to Israel than America is the lowest form of gutter politics seen in our country since Joe McCarthy," Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, dean and founder and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said in a statement.
"Instead of passionate and reasoned debates based on objective analysis of facts, we are increasingly witness to e-blasts, political cartoons, and sound bites that outrageously call into question people’s loyalty to our nation," Hier and Cooper said.
"We fear that such hateful rhetoric between now and next month’s historic vote will legitimize mainstream hate and anti-Semitism and falsely reduce an important policy decision that impacts on international terrorism, our Arab allies and the future of the Middle East, to a disagreement between the U.S. and Israel," they added.