Article: Israel And The Last Days
 

Nearly 900 American rabbis have signed a petition urging the US Congress to reject the recently-signed nuclear deal with Iran. The online petition hopes to garner 1,000 signatures by September 7 - the date Congress is set to vote on the agreement. So far 887 "ordained rabbis" from various denominations have signed.   A majority vote against is almost inevitable given the Republican majority in both houses, but so too is a presidential veto, which Barack Obama has clearly said he will use in the event the deal is voted down. The challenge then for opponents of the deal is to gain a two-thirds majority in both houses of congress to overturn the veto - an achievement that is looking increasingly unlikely as Democratic legislators have mostly rallied behind the president.   Earlier in August 340 liberal American rabbis signed a controversial call to congress to back the deal. Their letter provoked anger within the wider American Jewish community, many of whom, like the State of Israel, view the accord as a "bad deal" which paves the way for Iran to become a nuclear-armed power and emboldens it to pursue an ever-more aggressive foreign policy. In response, 350 Orthodox Israeli rabbis signed an appeal of their own to Congress, urging them to reject the deal. But the online campaign is more significant in that its signatories are all US citizens.