Since the signing of the Joint Plan of Action between Iran and the “P5+1” powers – the United States, China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, plus Germany – on July 14^th in Vienna, Israel and other foes of the agreement have doubled down and declared what a terrible, historic disaster this agreement allegedly is.

I disagree with them profoundly, but if they think this deal is so terrible, I do have these questions for them:

1. What exactly, do they think is missing from this agreement that would make it a good agreement?
2. What makes them think that Iran would agree to any of the items that they may have listed in response to question #1?
3. Why don’t they think that in the absence of an agreement, Iran would just go full scale ahead with its nuclear program?
4. Do they not think that this agreement at least slows down Iran’s progress towards nuclear weapons?
5. Do they really believe that Iran would attack Israel, given that Israel has nuclear weapons and far superior missile technology to Iran?[1]
6. Why do they think that if Congress vetoes this agreement, the United Kingdom, and Russia, and China, and especially Germany, won’t just lift the sanctions on their own?[2]
7. Do they recognize that even when the sanctions are lifted with respect to the Iranian nuclear program, that the United States still has other kinds of sanctions which won’t be lifted?[3]
8. Why do they think that it’s any worse for Iran to have the bomb than it is for Pakistan to have nuclear weapons?

I challenge anyone to answer these questions in an honest and forthright manner and to explain clearly why this is such a bad deal.

[1] Ironically, Israel is one of four nuclear-armed countries not recognized as a Nuclear Weapons State by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the others being India, Pakistan and North Korea.

[2] Germany is one of Iran’s largest trading partners.

[3] It turns out that only a small fraction of U.S. sanctions will be suspended as part of this deal. Sanctions related to terrorism and human rights, enacted by Congress beginning in 1995, will continue to be applied.