(JNS) Prominent pro-Israel groups are urging the Senate to reject the nomination of Colin Kahl to serve as the top policy official at the Pentagon.

“Kahl is a serial Iran appeaser with close ties to Tehran’s allies in the United States. He helped advance the disastrous Iran nuclear accord and has even claimed that Iran has a right to enrich uranium, despite the Islamic Republic’s infamous status as the world’s leading sponsor of terror,” said Christians United for Israel last week.

“[Colin Kahl]’s views are so far outside the mainstream, he’s even criticized Israel’s 1981 decision to destroy Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. The Senate was empowered to advise and consent to presidential nominations for the purpose of ensuring people like Kahl do not wield positions of power,” said CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee.

Kahl, who worked at the Pentagon in the 2000s during the George W. Bush administration and under former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Obama administration from 2014 to 2017, is being considered for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

The Zionist Organization of America has also come out against Kahl’s nomination, arguing that his “record of advocating pro-Iranian regime positions; opposition to Iran sanctions; close relationships with Iranian regime promoters; involvement in negotiating the disastrous Iran deal; anti-Israel positions … and propagation of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories” make him unqualified for the job.