President Barack Obama can now count on the support of 31 Senators to
ratify the Iran nuclear deal.
The White House needs 34 votes in the Senate and 145 in the House to keep
the Iran deal afloat and sustain a Presidential veto. So far, it has but one
defection in the Senate and 151 strong supporters in the House. The latest
addition to the "yes” list was on Sunday, with the commitment of the Democratic
US Senator of Oregon, Jeff Merkley.
On September 8 the Congress will debate the Republican sponsored
"resolution of disapproval” against a deal with Iran that has become a legacy
issue for Barack Obama. Israel’s government, which opposes the deal, intends to
fully exploit this context to derail an agreement that it has pronounced not
simply "bad” or "undesirable” but an existential threat.The combination
of Israel’s opposition and the need to stand out from a crowd of no less than
10 Republican candidates seeking Presidential nomination has turned opposition
to the Iran deal into a potential vote winning debate for any of the three
Senators seeking nomination.
The crucial vote is due on September 17th.
The republican resolution is likely to pass by a simple majority in both
houses. When that happens, the President can still veto the resolution. The big
question is whether republicans of the two houses will gather enough support to
override the Presidential veto, which requires a two thirds majority in each
chamber.
To do so, Republicans need to carry with them a number of Democrats in both
houses. Thus far, one Democrat in the Senate and 11 in the House of
Representatives have joined the republican campaign, most of them Jewish.
Jewish Democrats in the House of Representatives from Florida, New York,
Minnesota, and Montana joined the opposition. One of the defections, Schumer of
New York, was thought the most likely Democratic candidate for House Leader.
Still, polls indicate the Iran deal is broadly endorsed by American Jews
who are anything but streamlined in their support for this particular Israeli
administration. In fact, the cleavage between US and Israeli Jewry on such a
critical foreign policy issue is unprecedented.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/obama-closer-to-securing-the-iran-deal/