Israel Lobby to Press Congress to Derail Iran Deal

Deal Seen as Inevitable, Israel Focuses on Congress

Resigned to the likelihood that an Iran nuclear deal will be signed at some point in the coming hours or days, Israel is gearing up to take its vociferous opposition to the pact into high gear, lobbying the US Congress to vote against honoring the pact.

While previous Congressional efforts to derail the nuclear talks themselves failed, despite strong Israeli support, the Congress did secure a veto-proof majority toward granting itself the power to veto any deal reached by the Obama Administration.

Congress will have 60 days from the day the signed deal is submitted to them to vote on it, and Sen. Bob Corker (R – TN) suggests the Republican leadership will use every bit of it, meaning the vote on the deal is unlikely until September.

That gives Israel two months to step up its already hostile rhetoric on the deal and try to convince enough Democrats in Congress to go alone with blocking the pact. Much of the Republican leadership is already agreed to block the deal, whatever it ends up being, and they have indicated that pressure on Democrats from “heavily pro-Israel” districts will likely be the deciding factor.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.