Failed 2010 Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, who is preparing for another run against now-incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.), blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent visit to the United States and suggested that American soldiers are being pressured to go to war for Israel.
Sestak made the comments during a radio interview with Ed Schultz on Tuesday:
I don't think it's helpful whatsoever. I wish Mr. Boehner had not extended the invitation, I wish that Mr. Netanyahu had not come here. I understand he represents his country and he has the absolute right to accept an invitation. That said, the bottom line of all I said is, number one interest of anything we do is in the interest of the security of the United States of America, of which Israel is part of that. And we have destroyed the uranium that was enriched to 23 percent that could have gotten in one more month up to a fissile material that could be used for an explosion in a nuclear device, we've destroyed that down to 4 percent already in these negotiations. It would take them a year to get back up to the level they had there. And we destroyed the centrifuges that could do this. For us to have someone invited by an American congressman, bypassing the President of the United States, the commander in chief, and have somebody try to portray to us what the real situation is—it's our men and women who have to go into harm's way and letting us make sure we protect them. In our means of doing so, negotiations first, military action is inexcusable in my mind for this to come about.
In fact, not a single centrifuge has been destroyed as part of the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran, and it is believed any final deal will allow Iran to maintain the majority of its 19,000 centrifuges—a major concern of the deal’s American and Israeli critics, including Prime Minister Netanyahu. Nor has Iran’s stock of highly enriched uranium been destroyed. The bulk of it has been converted into a different form and is still in Iran's possession. And that conversion can be reversed.
Sestak came under fire for his views on Israel in 2010 after he signed the "Gaza 54" letter criticizing Israel's military response against Hamas. The letter was organized by the left-wing lobbying group J Street, and Sestak later said he regretted signing it.