By GREGORY FEDOROV and KEEGAN HASSON
Vice President Joe Biden addressed the Ahavath Achim Synagogue for the annual Fran Eizenstat and Eizenstat Family Lecture on Thursday night. With Israel and much of Atlanta’s Jewish community at odds with Obama Administration over the Iranian nuclear deal, Biden focused most of his speech, “Challenges Facing the U.S. and the World in the 21st Century,” on clarifying the parameters of the deal and cooling any tensions within the community.
“I take a backseat to no one who holds any public office anywhere in my commitment to Israel,” Biden said. “I have no doubt that this deal will make us safer, make Israel safer, make the region safer and make the world safer—and I say this as someone who’s spent decades looking closely at arms agreements.”
After assuring the audience that America will maintain its ability to impose harsh sanctions at any time, Biden touched upon a subject that has recently fueled chatter across the nation: his potential bid for the presidency. In the end, he said, it’s going to pivot on his sheer emotional strength, recounting his daughter’s wedding and his son’s recent passing.
“The most relevant factor in my decision is whether my family and I have the emotional energy to run,” Biden said. But he later added that he “will not hesitate to do it” if he can reach the proper conclusions.
Stuart Eizenstat, the event’s host, former U.S. ambassador to the European Union and Grady alumnus (Class of 1960), was pleased by Biden’s responses not only to the Iran deal but to other challenges facing America.
“He expressed the message that we’re at an inflection point in history, where the old Cold War concerns about pure annihilation are ended, but [where] we have multiple threats,” Eizenstat said. “And that requires the United States to be strong economically and militarily and to protect our power, but to realize that we can’t do it alone. We have to have allies that work with us, [so] when we do get involved military, it can be sustainable.”
Biden preceded the event with a stop in Florida and will be visiting with Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Friday, attending both with the hopes of abating similar concerns surrounding the deal.
