Christie, Jewish leaders decry Iran nuclear deal at Rutgers

The Iran nuclear deal, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie adamantly argued at a press conference Tuesday morning, is a bad negotiation, and a hallmark of President Obama’s desire to crystallize his legacy instead of acting in the best interest of the United States.

Surrounded by Jewish leaders in a high-ceilinged room of The Les Turchin Chabad House on the College Avenue campus, Christie made his second appearance in the Hub City since he first visited on April 30. The press conference is one event of many on his agenda as he campaigns as a Republican presidential nominee. It also comes a month before the Republican-controlled Congress is scheduled to vote in opposition of the nuclear deal.

As the deal stands, Iran agrees to strip its nuclear capabilities. In return, the United States will provide monetary relief to Iran for economic sanctions totaling billions of dollars. 

Since the bill was sent to Iranian officials for review earlier this summer, Obama has come under fierce criticism for accepting a side deal that would allow Iranians 24 days before inspectors would come back to inspect the facilities.

"Even the stupidest criminal in New Jersey would know to get that evidence out of there in the next 24 days," Christie said. 

Next to the side deal, the Associated Press recently reported of a secret side arrangement that would give Iran permission to use its own inspectors for overseeing the sites.

The press conference, co-hosted by the World Values Network and Israeli relations Political Action Committee NORPAC, featured speakers Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder of the World Values Network, Ben Chouake, NORPAC president, and Rabbi Shalom Baum, president of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Christie, Boteach, Chouake and Baum stood together to persuade New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker — a high-profile political authority who has yet to share his opinion on the deal — and the rest of the state congressional delegation to oppose the bill.

Currently, eight New Jersey politicians — six Republicans and two Democrats — oppose the deal. Rep. Donald Payne (D-10th District) is the only one who has come out in support. Two Democrats, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-6th District) and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., (D-9th District), are undecided.

Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7th District), who was in attendance at the press conference, has taken a less decisive stance on the issue, saying in a statement on his website that he will oppose any agreement that violates the safety of Americans.

Sen. Bob Menendez, however, spoke out against the deal in an impassioned speech at Newark’s Seton Hall University on Aug. 18, where he chided the bill as “aspirational.”

“It goes to 70 years of nuclear deterrence in this world led by the United States, which is now being disposed of by a president who is more concerned with what he perceives to be his own legacy,” Christie said.

Christie said the New Jersey delegation should stand as one in opposition of the bill and called back to the memory the teamwork state lawmakers used to rally federal assistance during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy.

Although Booker has remained silent on the controversial bill so far, Christie said he believes Booker will make the right decision and oppose the White House-backed deal.

"(Booker must) pledge to the people of New Jersey and to this country that if the president has the audacity to veto a defeat of this deal that he will stand up and override his veto and send the Americans back to the negotiating table,” he said.

Boteach, who called Booker a “soul friend” agreed, citing Booker’s refusal to marry heterosexual couples until the legalization of gay marriage would not translate to his support for Iran, a country that has a long-standing history of homophobic behavior.

“A senator at the forefront of prison reform in the United States could not legitimize a government that locks up thousands of people just because they are political opponents of the regime,” Boteach said.

Jewish people face another “annihilatory attack” from Iran with the deal, Boteach said, and the sunset clause, a provision that will render the deal null after 10 years, poses an additional threat to Israel.

"Iran needs nuclear power as much as I need a double bacon cheeseburger," he said.

The Iranian regime calls for a “second Holocaust,” he said. And with the approval of the United States, Iran will have legal international sanction to enrich uranium to weapons-grade level.

Christie made no comment about a genocidal agenda but said Obama shirked his “moral clarity” in favor of furthering his legacy, which Christie said the president is “obsessed with.”

“The American people have to save (Obama) from himself," Christie said.