JTA — A growing number of Jewish groups are pushing back against the new memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran.
At least for now, however, their responses to the agreement signed by US President Donald Trump are more muted than when the same groups publicly opposed former US president Barack Obama’s own Iran deal in 2015. And at least one Jewish group that opposed Obama’s deal is backing Trump’s framework.
The American Jewish Committee and the pro-Israel lobbying giant AIPAC became the largest Jewish organizations to voice concerns over the new Iran deal on Thursday, issuing public objections.
Trump’s MOU is not a final agreement, unlike Obama’s Iran agreement — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Rather, it marks the start of a 60-day negotiating period that aims to permanently end the Iran war, which saw most fighting cease in early April but is technically about to enter its fourth month.
It does not yet outline any clear commitments regarding Iran’s nuclear program, which had been at the heart of the JCPOA and which is of particular concern to Jewish groups, who are roundly opposed to Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, in large part because of the risk that it would pose to Israel. Many had objected to Obama’s deal in part because of its “sunset clauses” that would have phased out nuclear restrictions starting at the 10-year mark.
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Regardless, many analysts across the political spectrum are concluding that Trump’s framework is a worse deal than Obama’s, in part because it provides a pathway for Iran to stage an economic recovery. It also does not address Iran’s ballistic missile program or support for terror proxies.
The Israeli government, led then as now by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, aggressively opposed Obama’s Iran deal, with Netanyahu personally lobbying against it in 2015 in a controversial speech to the US Congress.
Israeli leaders, though not Netanyahu, have also voiced strong public opposition to Trump’s deal — in part because it would require Israel to cease fighting Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. A poll by Channel 12 found that 71 percent of Israelis don’t trust Trump to look out for their country’s interests in negotiations with Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of US Congress, Washington DC, March 3, 2015. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)
The MOU “raises significant questions,” AIPAC said in a lengthy statement that urged Congress to intervene ahead of “a final nuclear agreement” and makes the case that the terms of the MOU don’t match “President Trump’s stated objectives for the war,” including eliminating Iran’s ballistic missiles, cutting off its support for terror groups and ensuring that it doesn’t obtain a nuclear weapon.
‘[T]he MOU will permit Iran to reap significant economic benefits,” AIPAC’s statement says, adding that the document “opens the possibility that Iran will be left with a significant nuclear capability” by not addressing Iran’s nuclear infrastructure or requiring “the anytime, anywhere inspections necessary to ensure compliance.”
AIPAC also lamented that the agreement, by imposing a ceasefire in Lebanon, “would appear to mandate Israel end efforts to disarm Hezbollah,” and notes that it “includes no provisions to address Iran’s support for terrorism, or its missile or drone program.”
The lobby also said it “cements” the standing of the Iranian regime. At the war’s outset, Trump had told the Iranian people to “take over your government.”
AJC, meanwhile, outlined what it said were seven “concerns” it had with the MOU. Like most of the other Jewish groups that responded to JTA for this story, AJC also expressed hope that the terms of the deal could be changed to be harder on Iran and more favorable to Israel before it is finalized.
A man looks at the wreckage of an Iranian missile that landed near the West Bank city of Jericho, June 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
In 2015, in response to the JCPOA, the AJC said it “overwhelmingly” would “oppose this deal.”
Republican Jewish Coalition: ‘Trust President Trump’
“Trust President Trump,” the Republican Jewish Coalition told its followers Thursday, becoming the most notable Jewish group to support the US president’s memorandum of understanding.
“President Trump has earned the trust of the Jewish community as he and his team work towards a final agreement,” RJC CEO Matt Brooks and chair Norm Coleman said in a statement.
They praised the MOU, saying it “envisions a horizon of economic stability for the United States, the region, and the world,” and that it “provides an opportunity for potential new pathways to greater peace.”
The RJC cautioned, however, that “a final deal must avoid the flaws that doomed Obama’s,” specifying that there should be “no sunset clauses” on Iran’s nuclear program and other proposals. In the days before it…
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