J Street proudly supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has blocked all of Iran’s pathways to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
In 2015, J Street publicly announced that it raised $5.5 million for a major campaign to support the deal, and we were opposed by organizations, including AIPAC, that raised $20-30 million. Campaigns in the United States around policy issues that come to a vote in Washington are very expensive, and this one was no exception. We are grateful to the individual donors and foundations that invested in our shared commitment to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Today, we are proud of the results of the JCPOA – or the “Iran deal,” as it is commonly called. Iran has shipped 98 percent of its highly-enriched uranium out of the country, has disabled the Arak Plutonium reactor by irreversibly filling its core with cement, has disconnected 2/3 of its centrifuges and subjected the entirety of its nuclear program to the most intrusive inspection program in history.
As Israel’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has noted, the deal reduces the threat from Iran to Israel and represents an important strategic turning point. The Israeli Atomic Energy Agency has voted unanimously to endorse the deal, and in fact many significant Israeli security officials have publicly spoken of the security benefits of the agreement to the state of Israel.
J Street is proud of its work to support the deal and proud to have partnered with the Ploughshares Fund over the years to ensure that the important goal of preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was achieved by diplomacy without having to use military force. We look forward to using the lessons learned from this success to continue changing the US political landscape in support of pro-Israel, pro-peace policies.