Congressman Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for New York Governor, spoke on Monday at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York and said that he was very concerned about the possibility that the US would reenter the Iran nuclear deal.
“The sunset clause is now seven years closer to expiring and the administration isn't talking about changing that,” said Zeldin, adding that there are issues with the verification system that aren't going to be addressed, either.
“They’re also talking about taking the IRGC off the terror watch list. So, I have concerns with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. This is actually worse than the original agreement and a bad deal is worse than no deal at all. I’d rather have them walk away from the table rather than enter a fatally flawed nuclear deal,” he stated.
Speaking about the Taylor Force Act, which cuts US funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it continues to pay terrorists and their families, Zeldin said that he was honored to be one of the sponsors of the legislation.
“I don’t believe that a dollar of US tax dollars should go to the Palestinian Authority if they continue to go to rewarding terrorism,” he said. “The stream should be cut off.”
On the rise of antisemitism in New York, Zeldin said, “We have to combat antisemitism on our streets, in our schools, wherever you find it. It has to be found, confronted and crushed.”
“We see videos of all the antisemitic attacks on our streets and people live in fear,” he continued. “If you have to be afraid of being pushed in front of a subway car - people are afraid of being Jewish. If you want to represent people, you have a duty to stand up and defend religious freedom. We need district attorneys to do their jobs and if they don’t they should be fired. We need to be combatting crime and we are seeing it manifest with antisemitism.”
“Too many people are numb and if you are not disturbed by it, then get the heck out of the government and let someone else sit in that seat,” Zeldin said.
Zeldin, who is Jewish, was the target of an antisemitic death threat in late June.
In July, he was attacked following an upstate campaign event and escaped unharmed. The accused attacker, David Jakubonis, later claimed he had been drinking that day and didn’t know who the congressman was.