The president of the Zionist Organization of America praised his close friend — the late Connecticut senator and vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman — as a remarkable man with steely integrity and gentle humor.
Appearing Wednesday on Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight," ZOA's Mort Klein paid tribute to his longtime friend shortly after the startling news of the death of Lieberman, 82, was announced.
"Joe Lieberman was a man of extraordinary integrity, the likes of which you rarely see in politics," Klein said. "He would decide on the issues as to whether they were right or wrong, not whether his party was pushing for that certain issue."
Klein recalled when former President Bill Clinton refused to move the embassy to Jerusalem, Lieberman "publicly condemned Clinton for it and said he will personally move it brick by brick … to move it" back.
Klein also recalled then when former President Barack Obama wanted a deal with Iran passed, Lieberman pushed back, saying, "This is a terrible deal" and one that "gives Iran the right to have nuclear weapons legally. So he voted against it."
As recent as last week, when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., "made a horrific speech demanding that [Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu be thrown out of office, be voted out of office," Lieberman also "condemned Schumer for this," Klein noted.
Yet there also was a genuine kindness and sweet humor in Lieberman, Klein said.
"I was just in Israel. I had a two-hour meeting with Minister [of Strategic Affairs of Israel] Ron Dermer. When I walked out of the meeting, who's sitting there waiting to meet with him next? Sen. Joe Lieberman," Klein said.
"I said, 'My God, Sen. Lieberman, what are you doing here?' He said, 'I have a meeting with Ron Dermer.' I said, 'So where are you staying? Here In Israel?' He said, 'I'm staying at the Hotel Hannah.'"
Lieberman's description was of the "hotel" was priceless.
"My daughter Hannah has moved to Israel and [we] now stay with her. And we called it the Hotel Hannah and I come … much more frequently now because I have no hotel expense," Klein quoted Lieberman saying.
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