Press TV has conducted and interview with Marcy Winograd, author and political commentator from Los Angeles, to get her view on US President Barack Obama’s criticism of AIPAC’s negative stance on the breakthrough in nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: President Obama has made some harsh comments about AIPAC. How much can the Israeli lobbies in America, first of all, persuade the Congress to vote ‘No’ to the nuclear deal?

Winograd: I think that President Obama is absolutely right about the power and the challenge of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC. It, together with some of its allies, is spending 40 million, upwards of 40 to 50 million dollars, on television ads and phone calls into constituents to convince them not to trust Iran. I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime and…in terms of the executive branch of our government challenging, basically, a foreign lobby group that has a stranglehold on our legislative branch or had in the past.

Press TV: Why do you think Israel believes this nuclear deal is so bad?

Winograd: I don’t necessarily think Israel believes that. If you look at the J-Street, which is a softer Zionist organization in the United States, they have a long list of Israeli military officers, former military officers and former intelligence officers, who strongly support this deal. They think this is an excellent deal. What we see right now is AIPAC aliening with the rightwing of the Israeli government. I doubted anyone, who is a current military officer, a general or an intelligence officer in Israel today would risk his or her job to challenge Netanyahu on his very rightwing stances. So there are a lot of triangulations, bifurcations in this landscape. And just recently the man who slated to become the leader of the Senate in the United States, when the democrats retake that chamber of the legislative branch came out in opposition to this deal. And we see a huge grassroots revolt amongst Democratic Party activists over about 150,000 of whom have signed a petition, saying they will oppose the choice of this leader to lead the Senate. And not only will they oppose it, but they will withhold money for talking about potentially eight million grassroots party activists withholding money from any democrat who votes against this deal.

Press TV: Now, how much does Obama’s stance towards Israeli lobbies show there is a crack in relations between the US and Israel? Is this for real or is it just a short-term difference of opinion?

Winograd: I think it’s for real and I tell you why. We have an organization called Jewish Voice for Peace, which has not necessarily taken stand on whether or not Israel should be a Jewish state, but it has taken a position for peace. And they have grown exponentially in the last few years since 2008, I believe. We saw the outgrowth of J-Street, challenging AIPAC. Now we have the president of the United States, the executive branch of our government, openly saying AIPAC is trying to put a choke hold on our government. And I’ve never seen this kind of confrontation. I think it’s an opportunity for people like myself to say, ‘You know what, AIPAC does not represent us. I am Jewish. I’m not a Zionist. I believe that all people should be equal in Israel and Palestine. I support a one-state, two-state, bi-national state, anything that embraces the equality of all who live there. And I feel that it’s time for us to have that conversation in the United States and the opportunity is right for that conversation.’