This week, the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, and the presumptive Republican nominee for President, Mitt Romney, visited Israel. These visits fall on the heels of visits in the last three weeks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon, and John Brennan, the counterterrorism chief.

As allies, American and Israeli leaders have expressed grave concerns about nuclear developments in Iran as diplomacy and sanctions have failed to deter the Islamic Republic’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran continues to assert that its nuclear development program is meant to produce civilian energy, not weapons, and is therefore not in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This week, Congressman Forbes co-sponsored H.R. 1905, the Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Human Rights Act of 2012, which Congress passed. This legislation strengthens U.S. sanctions against Iran, for the purpose of forcing the Islamic Republic of Iran to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons.  

To read more about Secretary Panetta’s visit to Israel this week, click here.

Question Of The Week: With Iranian nuclear programs posing serious threats to the security of both Israel and the United States, what courses of action do you support in preventing Iranian efforts to develop nuclear capabilities?

1) Strengthened economic and trade sanctions

2) U.S. and Israeli joint military strikes

3) Israeli military strikes only

4) I do no support preemptive military action.

5) Other


Take the poll here.

Find the results of our last instaPoll here.