After expressing an eagerness to weigh in more on matters of the economy and foreign policy, GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson decried the Iran nuclear deal and called President Barack Obama’s policies anti-Semitic during an appearance on Fox News Sunday (FNS).
Carson, a top contender for the GOP nomination, made his comments to Chris Wallace in defense of his Jerusalem Post op-ed, a piece the FNS host said included “innuendos involving implied disloyalty and influence related to money and power.”
“Well I think anything is anti-Semitic that is against the survival of a state that is surrounded by enemies and by people who want to destroy them,” Carson told Wallace. “And to sort of ignore that and to act like everything is normal there and that these people are paranoid, I think that’s anti-Semitic.”
You can watch the segment here:
Though Carson didn’t explicitly mention the Iran deal during his Fox News Sunday interview, he recounted conversations he had with people in Israel, telling Wallace that he hasn’t met one person who “didn’t think the administration had turned its back on Israel.”
In September, lawmakers will vote on the Iran nuclear deal, a set of negotiations between Iran and six countries, including an agreement by Iran to hand over two-thirds of its 19,000 centrifuges to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The deal, if approved by Congress, would also secure billions of dollars in economic relief to Iran it would get through economic sanctions.
But not everyone wants the deal to come to fruition. Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, leader of Israel’s left-leaning Labor Party, says Iran is disengenuous in its intentions, telling the Atlantic that Iranian leadership will use the money from the deal to purchase more weapons and become a nuclear stronghold within the next decade. Republicans also oppose the deal, pointing to portions they say would limit congressional action in the event of future opposition. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY), too, spoke out against the deal, writing a 1,700 word statement on the matter.
This isn’t the first time Carson has accused someone of being divisive. He criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, calling it “silly” during an interview with ThinkProgress’ Kira Lerner. He later criticized members’ tactics of disrupting campaign events on Fox News, telling reporters that protestors should focus more on black-on-black violence.