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Joe Kent has resigned, protesting the US on Iran, saying that in his judgment “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation.” You and I don’t know the details about the Iranian threat; I’d like to think that Kent— who was the director of the National Counterterrorism Center— does.
Kent damaged the political impact of his own statement by claiming that “pressure from Israel” prompted the US campaign, thereby exposing himself to accusations of anti-Semitism.
Two questions:
Is it evidence of anti-Semitism— that is, contempt for Jews— to suggest that Israel had an outsized influence on US policy?
Is it evidence of anti-Semitism to say that Iran posed not imminent threat to the US?
It’s amusing to see the New York Times putting a complicated spin on this story: first giving prominence to the charge of anti-Semitism, but then propping up Kent’s credibility as a critic of Trump’s policies:
“Still, there is no question that Mr. Kent, despite his penchant for conspiracy theories and his deep skepticism of Israel, will be seen as a credible dissenter.”