Clifford D May: From Jerusalem to Jeddah
If Iran's rulers were to accept this deal, they would be provided with hundreds of billions of dollars to spend on whatever nefarious projects they choose.Russian Government Launches Legal Bid to Close Down Jewish Agency Operations
So why do they resist? Largely because they despise Americans. They refuse even to sit at the same table with American diplomats, insisting that all negotiations be conducted through intermediaries – Russians heading the list.
They've also been demanding additional concessions, such as the removal of their Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps from the American terrorist blacklist. To his credit, Biden has not conceded, cognizant of the fact that the IRGC is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans.
Given this context, the Emiratis and the Saudis are practicing realpolitik. Their aim is to end up on the winning side. That won't be the United States if the United States is seen as being in retreat and decline, unwilling and perhaps unable to defend its own interests, much less those of allies.
Biden powerfully reinforced this perception when he chaotically and dishonorably abandoned Afghanistan one year ago next month. Of course, it was President Trump who laid the diplomatic groundwork for America's ignominious capitulation to the Taliban.
Trump also did nothing serious in response to Tehran's attacks on Saudi oil facilities in 2019 – a breach of a long-standing if implicit agreement to defend the kingdom in exchange for its collaboration on global energy stability – vital for the international economy that the U.S. leads and from which Americans benefit. (Note: High on Biden's to-do list in Jeddah was convincing the Saudis to agree to pump more oil. Didn't happen.)
Even earlier, President Obama attempted to implement what I've called the Mr. Rogers Doctrine: the naïve notion that the solution to the multiple conflicts of the Middle East was to convince Iran's jihadi masters to "share the neighborhood."
Obama was passive, too, when Tehran and Moscow intervened militarily to prop up the Assad dictatorship at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Syrian lives.
If America is seen as a sclerotic giant, if its credibility continues to shrivel, expect other nations – not only in the Middle East – to distance themselves from Washington while appeasing and even kowtowing to America's enemies.
The ramifications would be enormous. Some people grasp that. Others embrace the view succinctly expressed by that eminent 20th-century philosopher Alfred E. Neuman: "What, me worry?"
The Jewish Agency is facing the shuttering of its operations in Russia, following an announcement on Thursday from the Russian Ministry of Justice that it is embarking on legal action to close the organization down.Europeans still playing double game against Israel
A spokeswoman for the Basmanny District Court in Moscow told the Interfax news service that the ministry had filed a request to remove the agency from the official state register of legal entities in Russia. The ministry claimed that the agency violated Russian law by allegedly maintaining a database of Russian Jews planning to emigrate to Israel. More than 16,000 Russian Jews have departed for Israel since Moscow launched the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The ministry’s lawsuit will be discussed at a hearing on July 28, the court’s spokeswoman, Yekaterina Buravtsova, told Interfax.
A senior Jewish Agency representative meanwhile clarified that the organization would continue working in Russia in the interim. “The Jewish Agency always works in Russia according to the rules and in accordance with the requirements of the authorities,” Yigal Palmor, the head of its international relations department, told the Russian-language Israeli news portal NewsRU. “At the moment we are in dialogue with them in order to continue working as usual.”
A separate statement from the Jewish Agency’s office in Moscow said that it would “continue to operate in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation.”
“There have been no requests for immediate termination of activities,” the statement continued.
Some Israeli officials nonetheless expressed anger at the announcement, with Minister of Diaspora Affairs Nachman Shai declaring that “Russian Jews will not be held hostage by the war in Ukraine.”
The Europeans are still playing a double game against Israel. Nine European governments last week issued a joint statement on six Palestinian NGOs that Israel designated as terrorist groups in 2021. In their statement, the governments said they have seen "no substantial evidence" to support Israel's allegations and will, therefore, "continue to cooperate with and support" these groups.
According to Israel, these organizations are a network working under the guise of human rights groups but are actually an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Senior officials in these NGOs were involved in the murder of Rina Shnerb and raising funds for the terrorist organization. The foreign ministries of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden made it clear that from their perspective, there was nothing to prevent them from continuing to fund these NGOs.
Without getting into the question of what would constitute the "incontrovertible evidence" they seek, European governments should have stopped funding these NGOs far before Israel's declaration in 2021. There was already considerable evidence that these organizations and their employees have ties to the PFLP, and this alone should have given any reasonable government enough reason to pause and examine how their money was being used. For example, PFLP conferences were attended by the directors of these NGOs; their directors hired members of the terrorist organization – some of whom had already served time in Israeli prison – and more.
Following Rina Shnerb's murder, the Dutch government even published an independent report pointing to the ties between one of the organizations it funds and the PFLP. Meanwhile, in addition to their connections to terrorism, these NGOs are at the forefront of a campaign to de-legitimize Israel's existence. They spearhead boycott and defunding campaigns, propagate the apartheid lie, target Israel in the International Criminal Court at The Hague, accuse the IDF of war crimes, and paint the army as a killer and abuser of Palestinian children.