Rabbi: 'Ridiculous' Pelosi Reaction to Netanyahu Speech

Democrats who panned the speech to Congress by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu either weren't listening or chose to level "ridiculous" complaints that didn't reflect the speech's actual content, a Jewish rights activist who attended told Newsmax TV on Tuesday.

Netanyahu made a "powerful" case against ever allowing a nuclear-armed Iran, speaking with "dignity," "passion," and more substance than his critics might have allowed, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.

Democrats were wrong to call the speech "condescending" or bereft of "concrete action," he said.

Cooper singled out the reaction of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who claimed to be "saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States."

"It's frankly ridiculous," he said.

Netanyahu said that what he wants is a deal "with which we could live, literally," alluding to fears that a nuclear-armed Iran would contemplate annihilating the Jewish state.

"So it wasn't that he was trying to nix any deal," said Cooper. "He was basically putting forward in a very respectful fashion why the current [deal] parameters only play the tune of the mullahs in Iran."

"He wasn't saying there shouldn't be negotiations with Iran," said Cooper. "He just said let's make sure at the other end that they're not capable to do exactly what North Korea did: Sign on the dotted line and when it was convenient for them … break out and become a nuclear power."

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