Bomb Iran, Says Bill Kristol’s ECI

Josh Nathan-Kazis June 14, 2012

The United States should bomb Iran today, a new advertisement released today by the Republican-linked Emergency Committee for Israel says.

The ad, first posted by the website Buzzfeed, hits President Obama for failing to order military strikes on Iran.

“President Obama has spent four years talking,” the narrator intones. “Iran has spent four years building.” The ad ends with a clip of a fiery explosion. “Talking isn’t working. It’s time to act – before it’s too late.”

The video is the latest in a series of advertisements by ECI, a hawkish pro-Israel group, to condemn Obama’s Middle East record. In January, ECI executive director Noah Pollak told the Forward that the organization would focus throughout the 2012 cycle on Obama’s Israel policies.

“We’re going to remind people of what a truly terrible president he’s been when it’s come to Israel, the way he’s increased Israel’s isolation, coddled Israel’s enemies,” Pollak said.

The organization’s political output stand in contrast to remarks made by ECI founder and board member Bill Kristol, the editor of the Weekly Standard, in a debate at an Upper West Side synagogue in May.

“I am happy to agree with Obama to a considerable degree,” Kristol said, stating that the president had “moved back to the center” on Israel.

According to Buzzfeed, ECI plans to air the Iran ad in New York and Washington, D.C. beginning today.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email [email protected].

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