Coons is the most radically militant zionist Democrat ever, and he wants you to know it.
Ever since his vote last September for the Iran nuclear deal, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) has bent over backwards to demonstrate his fervent support for the state of Israel through a variety of press releases, public speeches, personal meetings with Israeli leaders, and direct overtures to pro-Israel lobbyists.
But with his latest bid to charm the pro-Israel community — a letter co-authored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urging the Obama administration to give Israel the most expensive military aid package in history — Coons has angered several fellow Democrats after he rebuffed their requests to modify the letter’s language, Foreign Policy has learned.
The letter put Democrats in a tough spot: It is backed by AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobbying organization that few lawmakers want to alienate. But it also implicitly criticized the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, which most Senate Democrats supported.
In the April 25 letter, Coons and Graham warned President Barack Obama that Israel must receive billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to prepare for the “likelihood that Iran will resume its quest for nuclear weapons.”
Ultimately, 83 senators signed the letter. But several Senate offices asked Coons to swap the word “likelihood” for “possibility” — softening language that suggested the deal would inevitably fail to prevent Iran from seeking a nuclear weapon.
