Schumer’s defection from the majority of his Democratic colleagues rankles Obama but by no means ends the fight to save America and Israel from this bad deal. Obama needs 34 votes to withstand his promised veto of legislation disapproving the deal, and Schumer and other Jewish lawmakers need to scramble to ensure that Obama doesn’t get them.
Schumer’s challenge now is to persuade fellow congressmen, Jews and non-Jews alike, to come aboard. Time is of the essence and his work is cut out for him.
Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, herself still undecided, recently predicted the deal would ultimately survive because there wouldn’t be enough votes to override Obama’s veto.
“It is troubling and difficult for the deal to lose as prominent a senator like Chuck Schumer,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But it’s absolutely, completely still possible and probably likely that this is a deal that will go through.”
The danger of “too little, too late” is actually one Prime Minister Netanyahu, himself feverishly fighting the Iran deal, would do well to teach Schumer. This month’s tenth anniversary of the Gush Katif expulsion should be a haunting reminder to Netanyahu of the damaging futility of political posturing in place of political action.
Then a cabinet minister in Ariel Sharon’s ruling government, Netanyahu in October 2004 threatened to resign unless Sharon agreed to hold a national referendum within two weeks on the so-called Gaza Disengagement. Yet it was only on August 7 of the following year that Netanyahu finally resigned, a few short weeks before the expulsion.
Netanyahu then warned his fellow Knesset members not to “give them [the Palestinians] a huge base for terror.” But his urgent exhortations “to stop this evil” and “gather strength and do the right thing” rang hollow due to his delay in uttering them. Any sense of political triumph attributable to his resignation was belied by its lateness in coming. And it remained a blight on Netanyahu’s legacy. Schumer now finds himself in a similar position.
The legacy of instinctive moral valor lives long after other accomplishments have faded, as Gino Bartali’s bravery demonstrates. The purpose for which Bartali rode his famed bicycle proved to be far more enduring than the actual riding itself.
Yes, Chuck Schumer finally put weeks of wavering indecision behind him, but to safeguard his legacy he needs to do what he can to push others to do the same.