Joe Lieberman Presses Chuck Schumer To Oppose Iran Deal

Image by Getty Images

By JTA July 27, 2015

Former U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman is pressuring a top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, to block the Iran nuclear deal.

Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew who was a vice presidential candidate in 2000, said in an interview that “Chuck is the key” to blocking the deal. Schumer also is Jewish.

“I just can’t believe Chuck Schumer will support this,” Lieberman, who served four terms representing Connecticut in the Senate, first as a Democrat and then as an Independent, said Sunday on a New York radio show, “The Cats Roundtable,” The Hill website reported. “How can you make a deal with somebody who says they want to kill you?”

Schumer, who is Jewish, reportedly is being pressured by the White House to back the deal and by Israel to oppose it.

Lieberman said Schumer’s rejection of the deal “opens the way for a lot of other Democrats to oppose it as well.”

Schumer said Sunday that he is “studying [the agreement] very carefully.”

Lieberman has called on the White House to renegotiate the deal with better terms that also would better protect Israel.

Congress has two months to consider whether to reject the deal reached July 14 between Iran and six major powers to roll back sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. Israel’s government says the deal does not go far enough and leaves Iran a nuclear threshold state.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO