Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Israel’s Foreign Ministry, in Point-by-Point Review of Iran Deal, Sees Much Lacking
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that with the deal, nuclear enrichment continues; the Arak heavy water reactor does not get dismantled; research and development on centrifuges used to enrich uranium continues; Iran’s stockpile of 7 tons of uranium goes untouched; the project is merely paused, not stopped, allowing it to resume at Iran’s convenience; international business ties can resume, and would be hard to roll-back in the future; the six-month deal could become permanent; and, finally, the military question over Iran’s right to develop nuclear weapons “are completely absent from an agreement that envisions restoring confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program as one of its major goals.”Caroline Glick: The goal of Obama’s foreign policy
The culmination of this long process of delegitimizing Israel as a warmongering, ungrateful ally and its supporters as turncoats who are forcing the US to endanger itself for the benefit of the Jewish state was the administration’s hysterical campaign against Israel and its supporters in the lead-up to Saturday’s signing ceremony in Geneva. Everyone, from the White House to Kerry, accused Israel and its supporters of trying to force the US to fight an unnecessary war.Abrams on Iran Deal: ‘This Is Not A Peaceful Energy Program’
When we consider Obama’s decision to wait for a year to sign the deal that enables Iran to become a nuclear power in the context of his main activities over the past year, we understand his foreign policy.
His goal is not to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. It isn’t even to facilitate a rapprochement between America and Iran. The goal of Obama’s foreign policy is to weaken the State of Israel.
Abrams noted that Obama has wanted a deal with since taking office in 2009, and the President’s desire to end the confrontation with Iran is what “really worries the Saudis, the Israelis, and others in the region…they’ve counted on us to defend them from Iran and now we’re not going to be doing that.”Melanie Phillips: World saved? Hardly. More a final countdown to nuclear blackmail and war
“That’s the real problem here,” Abrams claimed, saying Iran’s enrichment of plutonium is “not a peaceful energy program.”
Journalists who would normally ask themselves ‘why is this lying bastard lying to me?’ if a western politician merely said ‘hello, nice day isn’t it’ (apart, of course, from The One) have suspended all independent powers of observation and thought over this risible farce of a deal.On my Mind: From Tehran to Damascus
Viewing it through the prism of ‘after-Iraq-don’t-give me-any-more-lies-about-Islamic-terror/anything-that-sounds-like-compromise-and-lets-us-put-our-heads-back-in-the-sand-must-be-good/war-with-Iran-is-sooo-much-more-terrifying-than-a-nuclear-Iran/new-Iranian-President-Rouhani-sounds-charming-and-moderate-so-phew!-we-can-believe-anything-that-he-says/anything-Benjamin-Netanyahu-is-against-I’m-for’, the chattering classes have apparently decided that yup, this really is peace in our time and any comparison with you-know-what in 1938 is well, just hysterical, and anyway we’ve had it up to here with Israel and they can just shut up.
The six-month interim deal does not in itself guarantee an end to Iran’s nuclear-weapons quest, and that’s a lesson no doubt being absorbed in Damascus. Assad may well look at what Tehran got, after years of obstinacy and defiance, and conclude that if he, too, continues to say the right words, he can continue to hold on.Geneva: The abandonment of the Jews
It worked for Assad on chemical weapons, averting an attack by the US and France after his regime murdered Syrians with those weapons of mass destruction. Prospects for the Syrian people are not encouraging. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out so aptly in an editorial, “The most lethal WMD in Syria today is Bashar Assad himself.”
The United States has recklessly rolled the dice with the fate of its closest ally in the Middle East, inexplicably placing its faith in a rogue regime, one that has repeatedly vowed to finish what Hitler began.Iranian freedom cancelled
It was 29 years ago, in 1984, that historian David S. Wyman published a seminal volume, The Abandonment of the Jews, on America’s failure to stop the Nazi slaughter of European Jewry. Marshaling painstaking evidence, Wyman conclusively demonstrated that America and its leadership could have saved millions of Jews. In the preface to his book, Wyman concluded with a simple yet chilling question, “Would the reaction be different today?” Sadly, the agreement forged with Iran in Geneva gives us a glimpse of what the answer might be.
This is not a victory of diplomacy, it is a victory of political amnesia. Conflicts like this one can only be solved once and forever when there is a change of regime. Remember Libya? Remember how the world failed to prevent nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea?Wife of imprisoned pastor says family devastated after Iran deal fails to secure his release
The American President has pushed forward with his appeasement agenda despite rightful Israeli security concerns. To me Barack Obama has entered history books as a US leader who not only let the Syrian genocide happen, but also sold out Iran’s civil society to cut a brief and shallow deal with an Islamist dictatorship.
Saeed Abedini, an American citizen, has been imprisoned in Iran for more than a year for practicing Christianity. The talks over Iran's nuclear program were seen by his family and those representing them as one of the most promising avenues yet for securing his release.The Iran deal is a pacifist march to conflict
But the White House confirmed over the weekend that Abedini's status was not on the table during those talks.
And so once upon a time when war was bad, the doves may have been singing from the hymn sheet of today’s more hawkish elements on the Iranian issue. Sanctions, not submarines. Pressure, not privates. Resolutions, not railguns. But where were they when the Iranian people sought to rise up in 2009? Where was Britain? Where was America? Where was the European Union? We all know: stuck in our sub-prime miasma – unconcerned with what would lead the headlines for months on end just four years later. This lack of foresight is indicative of just how poor long-term thinkers our leaders have become.Why Obama’s Iran Nuke Deal Is a Good Thing
The ‘pacifist’ Peace Pledge Union urged appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1939, believing that giving Hitler a little would mean saving a lot in the long run. It is not just a figurative truth, but a literal one, that our leaders of late have been the sons and daughters of Peace Pledge Union activists.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have both issued statements making it clear that they will not accept an Iranian bomb. And unlike Obama, they actually mean it. What they will do about it is another question, but now they, and everyone on the firing line, knows that Obama will do nothing and that sets them free to act.Iran, North Korea Secretly Developing New Long-Range Rocket Booster for ICBMs
Iran is in the North Korean cycle of nuclear development, useless sanctions, pointed threats and worthless deals. If the cycle continues, Iran will detonate a nuclear weapon and then it will pass nuclear technology into the hands of terrorists. And the next step is the mass murder of millions.
Several groups of technicians from the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), a unit in charge of building Iran’s liquid-fueled missiles, traveled to Pyongyang during the past several month, including as recently as late October, to work on the new, 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Koreans, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports.CNN poll: 53% of Americans think Obama is untrustworthy
Some 53 percent of the American public believes that U.S. President Barack Obama is neither honest nor trustworthy, a CNN poll conducted last week has found. The CNN/ORC International survey, released on Thursday, also found that just 40% of Americans believe Obama can manage the government effectively, a fall of 12 percentage points in the president's approval ratings since June.Senators writing new sanctions in case Iran cheats
According to the report, Obama scored lowest for honesty out of nine personal characteristics tested in the poll.
The Kirk-Menendez bill demands the administration certify every 30 days Iran’s adherence to the agreement reached in Geneva this weekend, and that it’s not engaged in terrorism against the US.Cantor: Since when do we trust Iran?
The administration has promised Iran no new sanctions during implementation of the six-month interim deal.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called the arrangement "dangerous" and said it brings Iran "closer to becoming a nuclear power." He said the deal "bodes very, very ominously for the region and U.S. security."2013 Iran Nuclear Deal Repeats Mistakes of 2003 Deal
Speaking to "CBS This Morning" on Monday, Cantor said the terms of the deal were softer than those already in several U.N. resolutions. He said the deal was "not worth the paper it's written on. ... Since when do we trust Iran? I believe that the attitude should be mistrust and verify."
The remark was a twist on then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan's famous statement about arms control. Reagan said he favored arms pacts with the Soviet Union if there was a "trust-but-verify" standard.
After defying the E3 and failing to adopt the additional protocol (in addition to other cheating) Iran’s nuclear program is far more advanced than it was ten years ago. Instead of making a new deal with Iran the P5 + 1 should have been enforcing the previous deals.Iran FM Zarif Strikes Different Tone in Tehran, Says Nuclear Activities To Go On as Normal
The case of the “additional protocol” taught Iran that it needn’t observe its commitments and obligations. In the coming months when Iran and the West have a dispute over the meaning of terms of the Geneva deal or the discovery of something suspicious in Iran, Iran knows that it can bluff its way out of suffering any consequences for its bad faith.
Despite an international treaty to the contrary, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, upon arrival at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport on Sunday, ”underlined that all Iran’s nuclear sites will go on their normal activities” and that “none of Iran’s nuclear programs would stop,” the semi-official Iranian FARS news agency reported on Monday.Hezbollah Says Nuclear Deal a Victory for Iran
“What was achieved through this agreement is a major victory for Iran and to all the people of the region and it is a defeat for the enemies of these people,” Hezbollah said in a statement.Hezbollah has fleet of 200 Iranian-made UAVs
“(It is) a model victory and world class achievement which the Islamic state adds to its record which shines with victories and achievements.”
Hezbollah has close to 200 Iranian-made UAVs. Part of the unmanned fleet is destined for kamikaze actions on strategic national targets in Israel or IAF bases during the next crisis which is bound to occur between the adversaries.Egyptian officials defend law restricting protests
The options at Nasrallah's disposal include many models of UAVs, including kamikaze planes capable of low-altitude flights to evade detection by radar.
The law, issued by the interim president a day earlier, bans public gatherings of more than 10 people without prior government approval, imposing hefty fines and prison terms for violators. It also empowered security agencies to use force to break up protests.Report: Egypt nabs 17 suspected spies linked to Mossad
The protest law has caused cracks in the loose coalition of secular and non-Islamist groups that rallied behind the military-backed government installed following the ouster of elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July.
Egyptian security authorities have allegedly detained 17 people suspected of working as spies in connection with the Mossad, Kuwaiti daily al-Rai reported Tuesday.
According to Egyptian officials cited in the report, the detainees were members of three spy networks operating in Cairo and several other Egyptian cities gathering security and military information along with intelligence on the country's economic situation.
