Obama: It hurts when people call me anti-Semitic

President Barack Obama says he is personally hurt when people call him anti-Semitic for his support of the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and six world powers earlier this year.

"Oh, of course. And there’s not a smidgen of evidence for it, other than the fact that there have been times where I’ve disagreed with a particular Israeli government’s position on a particular issue," the president said Friday in an interview with the Jewish publication the Forward, published Monday.


"And I’ve said before, and I will continue to say, that if you care deeply about Israel, then you have an obligation to be honest about what you think, the same way you would with any friend. And we don’t do anybody, any friend, a service by just rubber-stamping whatever decisions they make, even if we think that they’re damaging in some fashion," he added.

Obama praised the American Jewish community for being "intellectually vigorous and morally grounded" as people reach their own conclusions on the deal, and he bashed Republicans for announcing their opposition to the agreement before actually reading it.

At no point, Obama said, did he describe opponents of the deal as "warmongers," a point he emphasized during a webcast with Jewish groups last Friday.

"So I think it’s very important to distinguish between impugning the motives of people. I don’t think somebody like a Chuck Schumer wants war," Obama said of the Democratic senator's opposition to the deal.