Friday, March 04, 2022
FDD: Iran Approaches the Nuclear Threshold
The flawed premise of the JCPOA and of the Biden administration’s Iran policy is that Iran can both keep its uranium enrichment program — which the JCPOA allows to expand again starting in 2024 and to grow substantially from 2027 to 2031 — and be kept away from the nuclear weapons threshold.32 Instead of pursuing a defective and temporary accord, the United States should seek to restore the international consensus — embodied in successive UN Security Council resolutions from 2006 to 2010 — that the world cannot trust the Islamic Republic with an enrichment program.33 The regime’s relentless stonewalling of IAEA investigations demonstrates its bad faith. Furthermore, an energy-rich country like Iran has no economic need for an enrichment program. The purpose of Iran’s enrichment program has always been to build nuclear weapons.34Andrew McCarthy: Biden Colludes with Russia on a New, More Disastrous Iran Deal
If and when the United States and the E3 (Britain, France, and Germany) recognize the need for a fundamental rethinking of their Iran policy, they should relaunch the kind of comprehensive economic, financial, and political pressure campaign that forced Iran back to the negotiating table during Barack Obama’s tenure. This time, however, the campaign should persist until Tehran accepts the dismantling of its enrichment program and related measures to permanently cut off all pathways to a nuclear weapon. The Iranian economy has begun a tentative recovery thanks to Biden’s relaxation of sanctions, but it remains vulnerable after a deep multi-year recession.35 The United States and the E3 should invite Russia and China to support their efforts, but only if they accept the premise of a permanent end to the Iranian nuclear threat and do not act as spoilers.
Even without Russian and Chinese support, the United States and the E3 can restore prior UN sanctions by invoking the snapback clause of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Doing so would also restore all prior UN resolutions against Iran, which codify the principle of zero enrichment. Restoring multilateral sanctions would present Russia and China with a fait accompli regarding sanctions enforcement and provide a basis for further action by the United States and E3 to penalize non-compliance.
Congress can play an important role in encouraging the Biden administration to support a renewed pressure campaign. From 2009 through 2012, a bipartisan coalition in Congress played an indispensable role in creating the statutory framework for the pressure campaign that forced Iran back to the negotiating table. If there is renewed bipartisanship, Congress can prove similarly effective once again.
The most potent tool currently at the disposal of Congress is the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, or INARA, which gives Congress statutory review authority over any deal. Specifically, INARA requires the president to submit to Congress within five days any agreement with Iran and “all related materials and annexes.” There is then a 90-day review period during which the House and Senate hold hearings on the agreement and then debate it.36 Finally, INARA ensures a vote on whether to lift sanctions. Since the president can veto a resolution prohibiting him from lifting sanctions, a two-thirds majority in both chambers can block a deal. Thus, bipartisanship is essential. Even so, significant opposition sends a clear message to Tehran that a deal may last only as long as Biden remains in the White House.37 If the administration prefers an enduring agreement, it should stop relying on a partisan minority and submit a stronger accord to the Senate for ratification as a formal treaty. Ratification by the Senate would necessitate a bipartisan consensus on the merits of an accord and render it far less susceptible to cancellation by the next president.
Finally, the United States should continue — on its own and together with Israel — to increase the credible threat of military action should Iran move closer to the nuclear threshold or sprint to nuclear weapons. Specifically, Washington and Jerusalem should continue U.S.-Israeli military exercises practicing the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.38 The United States and Israel should also consider actions short of military strikes, such as cyber-attacks and sabotage of nuclear or nuclear-related sites, to delay the Islamic Republic’s progress and remind the regime that its malign activity will not come without cost.
Still, it would be far better to avoid the risk war of war by discarding the JCPOA framework and implementing a comprehensive pressure campaign that confronts Tehran with the prospect of bankruptcy and isolation unless it dismantles its enrichment program. The Biden administration should take all related measures necessary to ensure that the world’s most prolific state sponsor of terrorism can never reach the nuclear weapons threshold.
Others who would benefit from sanctions relief include Iranian officials complicit in Hezbollah’s 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine compound in Beirut, which killed 241 U.S. and 58 French military personnel in addition to several civilians. Also benefiting would be Iranians complicit in Hezbollah’s 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association building, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds.Richard Goldberg: Biden’s Coming Iran Deal Will Be Even Worse than Obama’s
This is just breathtaking. Among the JCPOA’s many atrocious features was that, besides merely delaying rather than halting the Tehran regime’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, it turned a blind eye to the terrorism that Iran has for decades directed at the U.S. and our allies, especially Israel. That was unconscionable, but at least it left terrorism-related sanctions in effect. If Noronha is right, those designations and sanctions will now be lifted, even though (a) they are unrelated to Iran’s nuclear work, and (b) some of them were in response to activity in which Iran engaged after the JCPOA took effect.
In return, Iran would reap about $90 billion in immediate sanctions relief, and $50 billion to $55 billion in additional revenue from higher oil and petrochemical exports. There would be no restrictions on how Iran spends this windfall — no limits on its terror promotion, wars through jihadist proxies, ballistic-missile development, and hostage-taking. In fact, on the subject of hostage-taking, the Biden administration would reportedly cause the release of $7 billion in frozen Iranian assets held in South Korea, in exchange for the release of four Americans, and perhaps some Brits, currently imprisoned in Iran. That is, the deal would resemble the ransom Obama paid for hostages in order to get Iran’s agreement to the JCPOA; the mullahs would be reminded that hostage-taking pays.
So . . . even as Russia was encircling Ukraine with an invasion force of 150,000, even as Russia continued occupying Crimea and other territories annexed from Ukraine and Georgia, the Biden administration was eagerly confederating with Putin’s envoy in order to revive an arrangement with Russia’s client, Iran (the “Death to America” guys) — an arrangement that is a disaster for American national security. If you were wondering why Vladimir Putin, as he continues pulverizing Ukrainian civilians, does not seem too fazed about the U.S. reaction, that’s why.
Moscow loves the old deal, especially the sunsets. Russia stands to make a lot of money off arms sales if Biden rescinds Trump’s executive order. That’s on top of the money Putin will already make building nuclear-power plants in Iran.
The new deal is even better for Putin — the timing of its announcement likely by his design. He will tout it as Russia’s contribution to international peace and security — a contribution requested by Washington.
Now is the time for Congress to act. The White House knows this agreement would never win ratification by the U.S. Senate if submitted as a treaty. Biden may even try to avoid submitting it for congressional review before lifting sanctions, defying a 2015 statute that requires him to do so.
Congress should defend the integrity of U.S. terrorism sanctions by mandating new sanctions on any institution in Iran — including the Central Bank of Iran — that continues to finance the activities of the Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations. Congress should condemn as wholly illegitimate the removal of terrorism sanctions without a cessation of illicit conduct. Biden is setting a dangerous precedent for U.S. counterterrorism policy.
New legislation should set a deadline for Iran to fully account for its undeclared nuclear work or face the full reimposition of U.S. sanctions. Removing sanctions for a supposed nuclear deal that knowingly allows Iran to hide its clandestine nuclear activities defies common sense.
Steps will also be needed to deny Russia the benefits of the deal. Sanctions targeting Russian economic, nuclear, and military relations with Iran should be reinstated or strengthened. The same might be considered for China, which has announced a 25-year economic-cooperation program with Tehran.
Finally, the question of military deterrence will take center stage. The coming deal makes it more likely that the United States or Israel will soon have to choose between military action or a nuclear-armed Iran. Congress should consider what tools Israel may need to defend itself in the wake of a strike against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
Unfortunately, a chaotic and dangerous world is about to get a bit more chaotic and dangerous. At least until Congress or a new administration can change course.
Lawyers challenge “unlawful interference” by UN Rapporteur in UK Pension Schemes
A Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is unlawfully interfering in the management of UK Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Funds, according to the association UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).
The LGPS is one of the largest defined benefit pension schemes in the world, managing the pensions of over 6.2 million members for 16,300 employers.
Michael Lynk, the UNHRC’s Special Rapporteur “on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967” wrote in November 2021 to the LGPS Funds, urging them to divest from all companies on UNHRC’s database of companies allegedly carrying out certain activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem “if the company cannot give a clear assurance that it has removed itself entirely from the settlement economy”.
Mr Lynk’s letter contained extensive allegations against Israel and against companies which he said are “heavily invested in the thriving settlement economy”. However, he did not give Israeli representatives any opportunity to respond to the allegations before he sent it and did not even inform them that he had sent it.
Israeli representatives only found out about the letter after the Pensions Director of Wirral Council drew it to the attention of UKLFI on 14 February 2022. UKLFI then circulated a link to a copy of it to interested parties.
By this date the Local Authority Pension Funds Forum (LAPFF, an association of many of the LGPS funds) and the LGPS Advisory Board (LGPSAB, a statutory body providing advice relating to the LGPS) had held a meeting with Mr Lynk on 25 January 2022 to discuss his letter. It appears that they did not appreciate its problematic nature. A news item on their website says “The discussion was productive and it was agreed to it follow up with another call in a month or so”. It is not clear whether there has been further correspondence or a further meeting since then.
declaratory judgment and damages for the wrongful refusal to renew Avi's 34-year business relationship solely because Avi refused to comply with Unilever's unlawful demand that Avi and AQP violate Israeli and American anti-discrimination and anti-boycott laws and policies.
— Marc Zell (@GOPIsrael) March 3, 2022
EU Lawmakers Slam Palestinian Curriculum for Inciting Students to ‘Hate Jews, Emulate Terrorists’
European Union lawmakers are urging the European Commission to consider reducing funding to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it continues refusing to purge its K-12 curriculum of materials that “incite schoolchildren to hate Jews and emulate terrorists.”JPost Editorial: The significance of Germany's Olaf Scholz's Israel visit
“This situation is simply intolerable, even more so as the EU is paying the salaries of the school teachers using this hateful material,” 32 members of the European Parliament wrote in a letter to the commission’s president on Tuesday. “This is a glaring violation of the most basic EU values and contradicts our common goal of working toward peace and the creation of a democratic Palestinian state.”
The European Commission has for years declared a “zero tolerance” policy for antisemitism, the signatories noted, but neglected to hold the PA accountable for failing to issue new textbooks based on the standards of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The EU continues to be the largest benefactor of the PA, which has seen donor funding significantly decrease since 2008, according to a November report by the World Bank.
“While we wholeheartedly support EU funding for the PA, EU taxpayer money must never be misused for incitement,” wrote the lawmakers. “We urge you to include the possibility of a reduction of funding in case the PA continues to refuse to make the necessary changes in the textbooks.”
Israeli education watchdog IMPACT-se issued a report in January highlighting examples of antisemitism in the PA’s curriculum for the 2021-2022 school year, including study cards for 11th graders that accuse Jews of being “in control of global events through financial power” and leveraging “Zionist influence” to trigger wars between major powers.
Marcus Sheff, the CEO of IMPACT-se, said on Wednesday that the parliament members who wrote to the European Commission are “angry and frustrated.”
There is a consensus in Israel that the new Iran deal represents a threat to the Jewish state, the region and the entire world, and that attempts to placate Tehran are unacceptable and bound to fail, as they have in the past. They ignore Iran’s goals to destabilize the Middle East and extend its influence over other states, such as Syria and Lebanon, as well as in the Gaza Strip.Saudi Crown Prince: Israel Could Be ‘Potential Ally’
While Israel’s new strategic deal with Germany is a welcome development, Germany’s support for the Iran deal is not because it imperils the Jewish state.
For the record, Scholz said a new Iran deal could not be postponed “any longer.”
“Now is the time to make a decision,” Scholz declared. “Now is the time to finally say yes to something that represents a good and reasonable solution.”
If there’s one thing that the weak international response to the Russian war against Ukraine has taught us it is that Israel ultimately can only rely on itself and its military might, and protect itself and its own interests.
When it comes to Iran, the international community has failed to halt the Islamic Republic’s aspirations to sponsor global terrorism, assert regional hegemony, build nuclear weapons and target the Jewish state.
Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Scholz’s coalition government has reversed Germany’s ban on sending weapons into conflict zones. Arming Ukraine at this time is justifiable, as is the sale of submarines to Israel. But contributing to the existential danger to Israel posed by Iran is quite another.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said Israel could be a “potential ally” of Riyadh, in remarks published Thursday.Australia officially lists all of Hamas as a terrorist group
“For us, we hope that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians is solved,” the prince told US monthly magazine The Atlantic, according to remarks carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
“We don’t look at Israel as an enemy, we look to them as a potential ally, with many interests that we can pursue together,” Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler said.
“But we have to solve some issues before we get to that,” he added.
Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
But in 2020, two of its main Gulf allies — Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates — normalized ties with Israel, becoming the third and fourth Arab states to do so after Egypt and Jordan.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said it would stick to the decades-old Arab League position of not establishing official ties with Israel until the conflict with the Palestinians is resolved.
Australia on Friday listed the entire Palestinian Islamist group Hamas as a terrorist organization, calling the move a deterrent to political and religious violence and bringing Australia in line with the United States, the European Union and Britain.US Supreme Court reinstates death sentence for Boston Marathon bomber
Australia had for two decades proscribed Hamas's paramilitary wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization but flagged last month that it wanted to upgrade the listing to the whole organization, a process that involved consulting Australia's state and territory leaders.
The change puts Australia into lockstep with its allies, which have also been moving to tighten their opposition to the Gaza ruling body, citing its access to sophisticated weaponry and terrorist training facilities.
"The hateful ideologies of terrorist groups and those who support them have no place in Australia," Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said in a statement.
"Our strong laws target not only terrorist acts and terrorists, but also the organizations that plan, finance and carry out these abhorrent acts," she added.
Listing organizations was a deterrent to violent extremism and sent a message that Australia condemned the use of violence to achieve political, religious or ideological aims, she added.
Proscribing an organization in Australia makes it illegal to give it funds, support or services.
The US Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.Shin Bet says flights to Dubai to continue after security concerns with UAE resolved
The justices, by a 6-3 vote Friday, agreed with the Biden administration’s arguments that a federal appeals court was wrong to throw out the sentence of death a jury imposed on Tsarnaev for his role in the bombing that killed three people near the finish line of the marathon in 2013.
The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled in 2020 that the trial judge improperly excluded evidence that could have shown Tsarnaev was deeply influenced by his older brother, Tamerlan, and was somehow less responsible for the carnage. The appeals court also faulted the judge for not sufficiently questioning jurors about their exposure to extensive news coverage of the bombing.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes. The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, made up of the court’s six conservative justices.
In dissent for the court’s three liberal justices, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, “In my view, the Court of Appeals acted lawfully in holding that the District Court should have allowed Dzhokhar to introduce this evidence.”
Breyer has called on the court to reconsider capital punishment. “I have written elsewhere about the problems inherent in a system that allows for the imposition of the death penalty… This case provides just one more example of some of those problems,” he wrote.
The Shin Bet security agency said Friday it had reached an agreement with authorities in the United Arab Emirates over security arrangements at Dubai airport that had threatened to halt Israeli flights to the region.Two Israelis Stabbed in Separate Attacks in Palestinian Village Near Jerusalem
Last month, the Shin Bet said that “security disputes have emerged between the competent bodies in Dubai and the Israeli aviation security system, in a way that does not allow for the responsible enactment of security for Israeli aviation.”
Officials at the security agency met with their counterparts in the UAE on Thursday to solve the disagreements, the Shin Bet said. It comes after a separate meeting between Shin Bet head Ronen Bar and his UAE counterpart last week.
“Understandings were reached, common working principles and security arrangements were agreed upon, which will allow Israeli airlines to return to fly to Dubai on a regular and continuous basis,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
Israeli airlines had warned they would have to reduce the number of flights to Dubai, or even halt them entirely following the dispute.
This would also have likely seen Israel halt flights from Dubai to Ben Gurion Airport by FlyDubai and Emirates, in order to not give those companies an advantage over the Israeli airlines.
A Palestinian man at a butcher shop allegedly stabbed a 40-year-old Israeli on Thursday in the Palestinian town of Hizma near Jerusalem.
The Israeli man arrived at a military checkpoint with a stab wound and said that a man in a butcher shop in the town’s industrial zone had attacked him, reported Ynet.
The Israeli was taken to the hospital and the IDF searched for the suspect.
A day earlier, a 48-year-old Israeli man was moderately wounded after being stabbed in the neck while in the same town.
This man also arrived at a checkpoint and said he was stabbed several times in a ceramics shop in the town.
According to the report, Israeli security forces believe the same suspect was behind both attacks.
I don’t agree with absurd litmus tests to visit holy sites but the fact Israeli security is enforcing Muslim rules that only Muslims visit Al Aqsa is the polar opposite of what Palestinians want you think about what Israel is doing at Al Aqsa https://t.co/WsysPjNtPJ
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) March 4, 2022
While Israel is rescuing Arabs (Palestinians too) and Jews in #Ukraine Hamas prevented a Palestinian from entering Israel to donate bone marrow to his own sister with leukemia.
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) March 4, 2022
Israel even set up a room at the border so he wouldn’t have to enter Israel.
Hamas still refused. pic.twitter.com/5FtZ4485iP
Palestinian Islamic Jihad: The hosting of an Israeli delegation in Beit Jala is a national crime and a betrayal of Jerusalem and our people. pic.twitter.com/IZYWgMrW6b
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) March 4, 2022
What appears to be a suicide bomber dressed in white was among militant representing Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in #Jenin this evening. pic.twitter.com/BmZkYm2AQZ
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) March 3, 2022
Another view of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant dressed as a suicide bomber in #Jenin tonight. Unfortunately, it's not possible to tell from the video if he has explosives strapped to his body. pic.twitter.com/YkLmOHIe1l
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) March 3, 2022
Nablus: Palestinians chanted slogans in support of Mohammed Deif, the military commander of Hamas, while celebrating the release of a Palestinian from Israeli prison. pic.twitter.com/EXZrGdxhwI
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) March 3, 2022
PA TV host distorts Israeli prayer and song, claims it is “hostile” and “caused fear and terror”
“We’ll liberate the land, not a single Jew will remain,” says daughter of terrorist murderer
Girl recommends other children read Antichrist - a viciously antisemitic book
Young boy sings song honoring 3 Arab murderers from 1929 riots
I want a huge plane for the self-sacrificing fighter that will bomb Lod Airport, girl sings on PA TV
Russians Announce US-Iran Deal as Tanks Roll Across Europe
A senior Russian official announced on Thursday that a new nuclear deal with Iran will be announced within 24 to 48 hours, signaling the Biden administration's continued reliance on and cooperation with Moscow even as it wages a full-scale war in Ukraine.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's ambassador for Iran negotiations, made the announcement in a video now circulating on social media. Ulyanov also said that he does not see the deal falling apart as a result of Russia's war, and that the two issues remain separate.
The terms of the deal remain unknown as the Biden administration has sought to cut Congress out of the deal and prevent it from performing its legally mandated oversight. Under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015, Congress must give its approval of any new agreement with Iran. While the Biden administration has promised to follow this law, Congress has not been presented with details of the deal or been asked to approve it before the United States signs.
Russia has served as the United States' key interlocutor in the talks even as the Biden administration and Western nations attempt to isolate Moscow as punishment for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress criticized the Biden administration earlier this week for its reliance on Russia in the talks.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
"Russia's further invasion of Ukraine is reprehensible, but we can't lose sight of the next national security crisis as it forms before our eyes: The Biden administration is reportedly rushing to finalize a deal with Iran, brokered by Russia, that it does not want Congress to review, in violation of U.S. law," Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), lead Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Free Beacon on Monday.
VIDEO: Mikhael Ulyanov, the Russian Ambassador for Iran negotiations says that the deal is "24, maybe 48 hours" away from completion.
— Gabriel Noronha (@GLNoronha) March 3, 2022
The Chinese, Russian, and Iranian governments know what's in this deal. The U.S. Congress and the American people are being kept in the dark. pic.twitter.com/3ZmUFi7osO
Khamenei long said his strategy was to turn Tel Aviv into Seoul. Like North Korea, use ICBMs to deter Washington & amass conventional weapons that could destroy a major urban center.
— Mark Dubowitz (@mdubowitz) March 4, 2022
Now, he is poised to use the Iran-Russia deal coming out of Vienna to advance that plan.
Victims of #Iran-backed bombing of the AMIA are furious. How could @Rob_Malley agree to lift sanctions on Mohsen Rezae & Ali Akbar Velayati, both implicated in the bombing? This isn't a D or R issue. Letting plotters of terrorism off the hook can’t be good for our nat'l security.
— Toby Dershowitz (@TobyDersh) March 3, 2022
The Coming Surrender to Iran
Another blow came in late February as restive Capitol Hill Democrats, displeased with the administration’s secretiveness and fearful of both being bypassed and of a terrible deal, came out of the closet. In a fiery floor speech, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez came close to ranting: “As someone who has followed Iran’s nuclear ambition for the better part of three decades, I am here today to raise concerns about the current round of negotiations over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Iran’s dangerously and rapidly escalating nuclear program that has put it on the brink of having enough material for a nuclear weapon,” he said. “I ask why we would try to simply go back to the JCPOA, a deal that was not sufficient in the first place—and still doesn’t address some of the most serious national security concerns we have?”Russia Involved in Plot To Help Iran Bust US Oil Sanctions
Menendez’s outburst stemmed from two problems, the first an incessant drip drip of reported concessions to Tehran on sanctions relief, and the second the clear intent of the Biden administration to violate the terms of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Review Act, an act that reflected substantial bipartisan congressional dissatisfaction with the original JCPOA and required that any agreement relating to Iran’s nuclear program—including amendments or follow-on agreements to the JCPOA—be submitted to Congress for review and approval. The White House has already signaled to Congress that whatever is inked in Vienna will not be “new,” and is therefore not subject to congressional review.
As the negotiations enter the endgame this week, that drip drip of leaks about the nature of U.S. sanctions relief to Tehran has become a flood. In what can only be described as an extraordinary twitter thread detailing exact concessions, former State Department Iran hand Gabriel Noronha listed the giveaways, including:
- Rescinding Executive Order (E.O. 13876) that imposes sanctions on the supreme leader’s office (and more than 100 individuals responsible for nuclear weapons, support for terrorism, human rights violations, and the like).
- Lifting sanctions on IRGC Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan and Mohsen Rezaei, who were respectively responsible for or involved in the 1983 Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 Americans and the 1994 Argentina AMIA Israeli community center bombing that killed 85 (ditto Ali Akbar Velayati, who was charged in Argentina).
- Lifting sanctions on the supreme leader’s bonyads, or “charities,” that are slush funds for everything from corruption to murder at home and abroad.
- Lifting sanctions on additional bonyads that finance the activities of the Basij, the paramilitary regime enforcement groups responsible for attacks and murders against students, foreigners, and any other perceived threats to the regime.
- Lifting sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps).
- Lifting sanctions on most Iranian banks, including the central bank of Iran, including sanctions imposed for reasons other than the nuclear program.
The list goes on at some additional length, but the breadth of the relief to Iran is almost incredible. What will be left of U.S. measures to deter Iranian adventurism in Syria, Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Iraq and beyond, should this deal go ahead as described (and State Department and congressional staff confirm many of the details privately) will be almost negligible.
In 2015, a majority, but not the required two-thirds majority of Congress, opposed the JCPOA. It’s likely that Biden will be able to whip the necessary votes to ensure Congress cannot stymie his plans to do business with Iran. But mere days after a State of the Union in which the president railed against the evils of Vladimir Putin and extolled the unity of the West in standing up to his assaults on democracy, it is a painful irony that in concert with, one could almost say at the behest of, Putin’s foreign ministry, that same Joe Biden will rehabilitate the world’s most dangerous terrorist regime.
Sanctioned Russian tankers are carrying illicit Iranian oil, providing a fresh financial lifeline for Tehran and highlighting significant gaps in the Biden administration’s enforcement of sanctions.The New York Times Published a Gushy Rashida Tlaib Profile. Then Pro-Israel Readers Flooded the Comments Section
The two tankers, named the Pegas and Linda, were recently sanctioned as part of U.S. efforts to isolate Russian businesses over the Ukrainian invasion. It has now become apparent that the two ships have been ferrying illicit Iranian crude oil in recent months, a move experts see as a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions and signal an increase in Tehran-Moscow relations. Satellite imagery and detailed information on both vessels were provided to the Washington Free Beacon by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a watchdog group that closely tracks Tehran’s illicit oil trade.
Russia’s involvement in the shipment of sanctioned Iranian crude oil highlights the growing ties between both regimes, particularly as Moscow faces international isolation for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. As Russia is choked off from Western financial institutions, it is likely to further bolster Tehran’s illicit sanctions-busting schemes to help it offset international sanctions.
Russia, UANI said in a Thursday statement on the situation, "has joined its ally China in participating in Iranian sanctions-busting schemes to smuggle crude oil and gas." Russia, China, and Iran are now leading the charge to bust U.S. oil sanctions. The anti-U.S. alliance between these rogue nations is generating scrutiny amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and efforts by the Biden administration to ink a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran—an agreement that will provide the hardline regime in Tehran with billions of dollars in cash windfalls. Russia has emerged as the United States' top interlocutor in these talks, drawing outrage from many hawks in Congress who want to see Moscow completely isolated.
"Iran has continuously worked to evade sanctions on its oil exports. Given that Russia and Iran have openly expressed their desire to expand cooperation, it is not surprising that Iran has found a partner in Russia to help it do this," Claire Jungman, UANI’s chief of staff, told the Free Beacon. "Through the use of these now-sanctioned Russian tankers, Iran continues to generate billions in revenue to fund its malign activity. As Russia becomes more isolated, we might see these two countries working even closer together as they work to evade sanctions and generate revenue."
The New York Times devotes 5,000 words in this coming Sunday’s New York Times Magazine to an adoring profile of Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic congresswoman from Michigan who got elected by favoring a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, but who now backs an one-state approach that would wipe the Jewish state off the map.BBC NEWS COVERAGE OF TERRORISM IN ISRAEL – FEBRUARY 2022
As usual for the Times, and particularly the magazine, the article is a toxic combination of blatant falsehoods and wishful thinking by the paper’s editors. What’s new is that the online comments section of the article has been swarmed by pro-Israel readers pushing back against Tlaib and the Times’ narrative.
The blatant falsehoods in the Times article include the article’s whitewashing of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The Times refers to “the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to end military occupation by exerting economic pressure on Israel.” In fact, ending “military occupation” is not the goal of the BDS movement, unless one considers all of Israel to be militarily occupied. According to the movement’s official website, it also favors allowing “more than 7.25 million Palestinian refugees” a “right to return to their homes.” That would eradicate Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
As a former editor at the Times, Mark Horowitz, has observed, “This narrow definition of BDS is so ubiquitous that it must be policy, not just ignorance. By limiting it to anti-occupation activism, but leaving out BDS rejectionism, antinormalization, and calls for elimination of Israel as the Jewish state, they are gaslighting Jews.”
The Times also falsely claims that Israel “in 2018, passed a controversial ‘nation-state’ law that in part affirms that only Jewish people have the ‘right to national self-determination.’” The law doesn’t really say only Jewish people have a right to national self-determination. It does say that “The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” That’s a subtle distinction, but an important one: the law doesn’t prevent any non-Jewish person from exercising national self-determination in some country other than Israel.
The basic premise of the Times article — that there is some significant new blossoming of pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel sentiment on the American left and among American Jewry — is also false.
The Israel Security Agency’s report on terror attacks (Hebrew) during February 2022 shows that throughout the month a total of 187 incidents took place: 171 in Judea & Samaria, 15 in Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’ and one in the Gaza Strip sector.Jewish Groups Commend House Committee for Advancing Bill Authorizing More Funding for Synagogue Security
In Judea & Samaria, Jerusalem and inside the ‘green line’ the agency recorded 136 attacks with petrol bombs, 29 attacks using pipe bombs, fourteen shooting attacks, five arson attacks and one rock-throwing attack (note – the ISA only records rock-throwing attacks which result in moderate or serious injuries). In the Gaza Strip sector one arson attack was recorded.
One civilian was wounded in a rock-throwing attack on her vehicle in the Binyamin area on February 28th.
The ISA’s report does not include the death on February 6th of a woman injured in a rocket attack on her home last May.
The US House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday advanced a bill that would authorize $500 million in annual funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which provides funding to bolster security for targeted non-profit institutions such as places of worship, day schools, museums and community centers.AIR New Zealand: Protests become antisemitism super-spreader events
The Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act (H.R. 6825) was introduced by committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and ranking member Rep. John Katko (R-NY) in the wake of the Jan. 15 hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, as well as deadly attacks at other houses of worship in recent years.
Since NSGP was passed 15 years ago with urging from major Jewish communal organizations, funding had steadily increased to $180 million last year. Still, this amount was not nearly enough to cover the applications the grant received.
Jewish organizations and lawmakers, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have long called for funding for the grant to be increased to $360 million, with calls for the increase gaining steam after the recent hostage situation in Colleyville.
“We already are aware that limited funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program left more than half of eligible organizations who applied for the grants empty-handed in 2021,” Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union (OU) Advocacy Center, said in a news release Thursday.
Diament commended the leaders of the bill and urged its passage in the Senate.
Anti-vaccine activists protesting outside New Zealand’s Parliament are promoting their demonstration as peaceful, reasonable and non-threatening. But it is a highly divisive event which has the potential to be an antisemitism super-spreader.St Neots man jailed for anti-Semitic Covid hoax theories
Since the protest – which the vast majority of the population does not support – began, there have been multiple reports of antisemitic signs and graffiti. These have included a Nazi swastika painted on a statue outside Parliament and a ute with “Jewcinda” – a slur referring to New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern – scribbled across the cab. There have been frequent comparisons of vaccine mandates and public health restrictions to the Holocaust and Nazism, and misappropriations of the Star of David.
On social media, particularly platforms favoured by the protestors such as Telegram, antisemitic imagery and rhetoric have been circulating regularly. On Counterspin Media, an online channel affiliated with Steve Bannon, a controversial former advisor to Donald Trump, which has been broadcasting live from the protest and getting thousands of views, the hosts have been telling people to read the antisemitic forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
And then there is the presence of well-known neo-Nazi and far-right activists at the protest. One Counterspin host, Kelvyn Alp, established an armed militia to try to overthrow the NZ government in the early 2000s. At the protest, he has encouraged demonstrators to storm Parliament and arrest MPs, while making multiple threats to kill MPs.
Members of Action Zealandia, the country’s largest neo-Nazi group with reported ties to violent overseas extremist groups, are also present at the Wellington protest. They have been posting photos from Parliament grounds and sparked an investigation after posting footage from atop one of the Parliamentary buildings.
At a satellite protest in Christchurch, Kyle Chapman, the former leader of the National Front, and prominent white supremacist Philip Arps, who was jailed for sharing the livestream of the Christchurch mosque shootings, were present. Arps was earlier arrested in Picton on his way to Wellington, after allegedly saying he was heading to a “public execution”.
A coronavirus conspiracist who distributed anti-Semitic hoax theories has been given an extended jail sentence of more than 12 years.Heritage of Iraq's last few Jews at risk
Matthew Henegan, 37, from St Neots in Cambridgeshire, was found guilty of possessing, distributing and publishing documents to stir up racial hatred.
A pre-sentence report said he was "potentially a very dangerous man".
Sentencing at Winchester Crown Court, Judge Nigel Lickley QC, said Henegan "created racist material".
In leaflets and online posts made in March 2020, Henegan claimed Jewish people were behind Covid-19 news stories and "controlled the media", the court heard.
Residents reported receiving "offensive and anti-Semitic" leaflets through their letter boxes.
These included links to video and audio files posted by Henegan on a website which were racially inflammatory.
Cambridgeshire Police searched his home on 17 April 2020 and found a large number of leaflets.
In a busy district of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, there is little to distinguish the faded brick building, except for a Hebrew inscription above the entrance.‘The Boy In The Striped Pajamas,’ decried for its Holocaust inaccuracies, is getting a sequel
Iraq's Jewish community was once one of the largest in the Middle East but its members have dwindled to a handful, outside of the autonomous Kurdistan region.
"Our heritage is in a pitiful condition" and authorities take no notice, said a member of the congregation who requested anonymity, fearing reprisals.
Their precious history, including the synagogue, is threatened in a country torn apart by decades of war, corruption and armed groups.
While historical treasures ruined by jihadists are being restored in Iraq, rare international efforts at saving the Jewish heritage have not been enough.
Baghdad's Meir Tweig Synagogue, built in 1942, seems to have been frozen in time.
Behind its padlocked doors, the benches are covered in white cloth to shield them from the sun. The walls of the sky-blue two-storey columned interior are crumbling.
The steps leading to a wooden cabinet holding the sacred Sefer Torah scrolls are coming apart.
Flanked by marble plaques engraved with seven-branched candelabra and psalms, the cabinet shelters the scrolls written in hand calligraphy on gazelle leather.
"We used to pray here," the member said. "We celebrated our festivals, and in summer we studied religious courses in Hebrew."
A best-selling children’s novel that the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum has said “should be avoided by anyone who studies or teaches about the history of the Holocaust” is getting a sequel.Harold ‘Smoky’ Simon, One of the IAF’s Founders, Dies at 101
John Boyne, the Irish author of “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” announced Wednesday that he would be publishing a follow-up to the 2006 blockbuster about a 9-year-old German boy’s friendship with a Jewish child imprisoned at Auschwitz.
The new book, he said, would be told from the perspective of the German boy’s sister, Gretel.
The announcement comes just weeks after “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” which has sold 11 million copies and spawned a movie adaptation that grossed $44 million, faced a fresh round of scathing criticism over its historical inaccuracies amid a controversy over Holocaust education in Tennessee. There, a local school board removed “Maus,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic memoir, from the local curriculum, sparking a national conversation about how to teach children about the Holocaust.
“Maus” author Art Spiegelman said he’d be fine with students reading another Holocaust book instead — just not, he said, Boyne’s. “The guy didn’t do any research whatsoever,” Spiegelman told a Tennessee audience.
Three days after he passed away at the age of 101, close to his 102nd birthday, tributes continue to pour in for Harold “Smoky” Simon on Thursday, one of the legendary founders of the Israeli Air Force.Ukrainian Holocaust Survivor, 90, Reunited with her Daughters in Israel
The Israeli Air Force said on its official website that Simon left behind an enormous legacy containing “endless, heroic stories.”
On May 14, 1948, one week after arriving in Israel from South Africa, he took off in a Bonanza aircraft, making it “the first Hebrew flight that he took part in,” the IAF recalled.
“The plane flew towards Lebanon and left the borders of [Mandatory] Palestine, while at the same time, David Ben Gurion prepared to give a statement at Dizengoff House in Tel Aviv. When the aircrew returned from their mission, they already arrived in a land that turned into the State of Israel,” it stated. “His pioneering influence has been etched into the origins of the state.”
Born in 1920, he enlisted into the South African air force at the age of 21 after studying accountancy. He fought against the Nazis for the allies in the Second World War, gaining experience as a navigator on-board a bomber.
At the end of the war, after setting up an accountancy firm, storm clouds of war gathered in the Middle East, and Simon took the decision to move to Israel and fight for it.
On Thursday, as part of its first-ever chartered humanitarian aid flight to assist Ukrainian refugees in Moldova, United Hatzalah airlifted 160 refugees back to Israel. Some held Israeli citizenship, some relied on their right of return, and some had decided to immigrate to Israel and make it their permanent home.
One such woman, Raisa, 90, a Holocaust survivor who has difficulty walking, was living on her own in Odessa. Her son had passed away two years ago due to illness. Her only remaining family is three granddaughters who all live in Israel. When the fighting broke out and people fled the city, Raisa’s granddaughters reached out to United Hatzalah and asked them to help save their grandmother’s life.
Rabbi Hillel Cohen, Director of United Hatzalah in Ukraine, arranged for an ambulance to bring Raisa to the Moldovan border where she met Hatzalah volunteers who brought her food and clothing and checked her medical status. On Wednesday, she was brought to a shelter in Kishinev that’s run by the local Jewish community. Early Thursday morning, together with other Ukrainian refugees, she was taken by bus to the Iasi airport in Romania, where she boarded a flight to her new home in Israel to be reunited with her granddaughters.
“When the plane arrived in Israel, there were a lot of tears,” said Vice President of Operations Dov Maisel who accompanied the refugees on the return trip. “I’ve seen my fair share of disaster zones and I don’t get emotional easily, but seeing Raisa reunited with her granddaughters brought me to tears.”
“What happened here was a miracle,” said Michal, one of Raisa’s granddaughters. “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Beautiful message from @NatanSharansky
— Lahav Harkov (@LahavHarkov) March 4, 2022
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