Former Republican Indiana senator Richard Lugar passed away on Sunday at the age of 87 from complications related to a rare neurological disorder.
After a loss in a primary election in 2012 ended his 35 years in Washington, JTA wrote, "Lugar, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, consistently backed defense assistance for Israel and in the 1980s championed freedom for Soviet Jews. But he was also known for pushing a more active U.S. approach to brokering Middle East peace than that favored by much of the pro-Israel lobby, and he preferred to move ahead cautiously on Iran sanctions. It cited Mike Kraft, a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 1970s and 1980s as saying, “Lugar wasn’t actively pro-Israel, but he wasn’t anti either.”