New York Times: Bad Decision by Senator Schumer
New York’s senior senator, Chuck Schumer, has cast his lot with Republican presidential candidates, other hardliners and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in declaring his opposition to the nuclear agreement that President Obama and five other world leaders negotiated with Iran. Given Mr. Schumer’s wrong-headed and irresponsible decision, Democrats may want to reconsider whether he is the best candidate to be their next leader in the Senate, a job he desperately wants.
In addition to being the third-ranking Democratic leader in the Senate and a major party fund-raiser, Mr. Schumer is Congress’ most influential Jewish member. His choice could affect the votes of other lawmakers who are wavering. Whether to support the nuclear deal is the most consequential foreign policy decision facing lawmakers since the Iraq war and opponents are waging a fierce multi-million dollar campaign to defeat it.
Mr. Schumer is a smart man and a clever politician but his arguments for opposing the agreement are no more convincing than those put forward by other opponents. While supporters of the deal, including the major powers and most nuclear experts, acknowledge it has weaknesses, the fact is, it offers strong and unprecedented curbs on Iran’s nuclear activities....
Any opponent of the deal bears a responsibility to propose a credible alternative but Mr. Schumer has repeated the same fanciful talking points that Mr. Netanyahu and the Republicans have espoused. “Better to keep U.S. sanctions in place, strengthen them, enforce secondary sanctions on other nations, and pursue the hard-trodden path of diplomacy once more, difficult as it may be,” Mr. Schumer said. Such suggestions ignore the fact that the major powers are more likely to abandon the sanctions altogether if the United States reneges on the deal and to refuse, along with Iran, to reopen negotiations....
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