Monday, September 21, 2015
3.Trading horses with Putin By CAROLINE B. GLICK 09/17/2015
· Kol Nidre: Its message to us and to our nation
‘Self-ghettoization’ in the State of Israel
On Tuesday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius hailed Obama’s “enormous victory” on the Iran nuclear deal. To be sure, Obama’s victory was not against Iran. It was against Netanyahu.
Trading horses with Putin This week US President Barack Obama informed Jewish leaders that he plans to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on November 9.
Yawn.
After 42 Democratic senators spent September 11 [14th year anniversary of 9/11/01] blocking their Senate colleagues from voting on Obama’s nuclear deal with the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, the time has come to stop trying to influence the Obama administration’s policy toward Iran specifically and toward the Middle East in general. It’s a sucker’s game.
Obama’s supporters like to argue that the administration’s rupture with Israel over the Iran deal is nothing more than a difference of opinion about how best to deal with a problem that both sides wish to solve. But this is not the case.
On Tuesday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius hailed Obama’s “enormous victory” on the Iran nuclear deal. To be sure, Obama’s victory was not against Iran. It was against Netanyahu.
Based on an interview he conducted with Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, Ignatius wrote, “A weak president Obama may be. But a paradox of his presidency is that he has been at his toughest in fighting for the Iran nuclear deal against Netanyahu, the leader of one of America’s closest allies.”
Through Ignatius, Rhodes basked in the president’s great victory over Israel, a victory he views as Obama’s greatest foreign policy achievement.
The takeaway lesson is obvious. Obama never intended to stop Iran from going nuclear. The goal of his nuclear diplomacy with the mullahs was to beat Israel. And there you have it. The Democrats protected him and he beat us. So Mazal Tov to him.
Now that this is out in the open, clearly we have no reason to get excited about his decision to meet with Netanyahu. Certainly there is no point in making any concessions to Obama ahead of the visit in order to increase its chances of success.
And this is the heart of the matter.
Israel isn’t all powerful. We’re a small country with significant but limited resources and capabilities.
The region we live in is deeply chaotic and steeped in crises. Our great challenge is to pick our fights carefully.
We cannot afford to get sucked into adventures – like appeasing Obama – where the likely return on our investment is minuscule.
Today Israel has only two threats that it really needs to worry about: the Iranian threat and the Palestinian threat to Jerusalem.
Iran threatens Israel in three ways. The greatest threat it poses of course is its nuclear threat. With Obama’s declaration of victory over Israel the time for diplomacy ended. Israel needs to focus its efforts on the one path still open to us.
The government needs to devote its energies to developing the means to physically destroy Iran’s nuclear program. To this end, Netanyahu’s meeting next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be much more consequential than his meeting with Obama in November.
No, Israel cannot entertain fantasies about a possible alliance with Russia. That won’t happen. But at the same time, we need to recognize that Russia is not the Soviet Union. Yes, Russia has superpower aspirations, which include projecting its power in the Middle East. But unlike the Soviet Union, Russia’s actions are not informed by an overarching world view that is inherently anti-Semitic.
In other words, it may be possible to do business with Putin.
Along these lines, we need to recognize that Putin’s decision to deploy forces in Syria is not necessarily a hostile act. What it is first of all is proof that Assad’s regime is lost. And this is a good thing because a weak, disintegrating Syria is bad for Iran.
The second way Iran threatens Israel is through its regional power projection. Up until the war began in Syria five years ago, Syria was Iran’s ace in the hole.
Through its Syrian protectorate, Iran controlled a border with Israel and with Hezb’Allah. Ever since the war began, Iran has been forced to spend $6 billion-$16b.every year in the hope of saving Assad.
The Russian deployment around Latakia is proof that Iran has been defeated.
During the 2006 war with Hezb’Allah, Russia shared intelligence and other assets with the Iranian proxy.
But unlike the Soviets in previous wars, the Russians didn’t actively interfere with Israel’s military operations. Today, after five years of failure in Syria, Hezb’Allah and Iran are weaker than they were in 2006. So it is hard to see why Russia would do more to help them in their war against Israel today than it did back then.
Whatever the state of Moscow’s relations with the Iranians and Hezb’Allah, today Israel has the ability to influence Russia’s actions.
One of the ways Israel can penetrate Russia’s decision loop is by offering to help it fight anti-Russian jihadists operating out of Syria. One of Islamic State’s senior commanders in Syria is Tarkhan Batirashvili, a former Georgian special forces commander trained by the US. According to McClatchy, Batirashvili fought against the Russians in both South Ossetia and in Chechnya. In 2012 he traveled to Turkey where he joined other jihadists in founding IS. Today, Chechens form one of the largest groups of foreign fighters in Islamic State.
Iran and Hezb’Allah have no credibility in fighting them.
Although Assad and his Iranian sponsors like to talk about their total war against Islamic State,
they have played a key role in enabling the psychotic jihadist movement to take and maintain control over so much territory. They have done so mainly by fighting a phony war against IS that has kept others from taking more concerted action against the terrorist army.
Iran’s phony war and effective protection of IS is of a piece with its long record of colluding with Sunni jihadists.
Since early 2002, Iran has served as a major command post for al-Qaida. Much of al-Qaida’s leadership in Afghanistan fled to Iran as US forces overthrew the Taliban regime. Since their entry into the country, Iran has claimed that these senior al-Qaida commanders were “being detained” or “under arrest.”
Amazingly while “under detention,” from 2004 through 2011, members of the group managed to organize al-Qaida in Iraq and command both its and the Shiite insurgencies against US forces in the country. In 2012, al-Qaida in Iraq morphed into IS.
This week it was reported that Iran has “swapped” five senior al-Qaida leaders for an Iranian diplomat that al-Qaida held in Yemen. In short order these terrorist chiefs will be permitted to leave Iran. According to the terms of their “release,” the five agreed not to attack Assad’s regime, but rather focus their efforts on Western targets.
Most media reports have portrayed Putin’s decision to deploy forces to Syria as proof of his commitment to maintaining Assad’s hold on power. But the truth is much more straightforward. Putin is deploying forces to Syria because he thinks he has an opportunity to rebuild Russia’s strategic projection in the Middle East through Syrian bases. And he is right.
The Russians will no doubt be happy to destroy Chechen terrorists a cool 3,500km from Moscow. Israel would be a much better partner for Russia than IS’s Iranian & Syrian enablers.
If Russia is interested in Israel’s help, we can leverage our assistance as a means of exacting a Russian pledge not to interfere in Israeli operations against Hezb’Allah.
As to Iran, the fact that Russia has long assisted Iran’s nuclear program is not proof that Putin believes a nuclear-armed Iran is good for Russia. Russia’s involvement has been far more mercenary than strategic. Selling Iran nuclear reactors is simply good business as far as Putin is concerned.
Israel may be able to make him a better offer.
Chances of success will be much greater if the government manages to get Israel’s gas out of the sea.
Iran’s decision to set loose al-Qaida commanders is yet further proof of Iran’s ill intentions toward the US and Europe. Israel can leverage its capacity to track and fight terrorists in order to advance its interests in Europe.
This brings us to the Palestinian threat. Israel can offer its services in foiling terrorist plots in Europe in exchange for an end to European financing of anti-Israel activist groups.
Israel has an acute need today to weaken the BDS movement and decrease Western pressure regarding the Palestinians, because currently the Palestinians are using the West’s support for them to endanger Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem.
Alexander Levlovitz’s murder by rock-throwing terrorists in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood over Rosh Hashana was the result of a multi-dimensional campaign directed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to destroy Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem.
This campaign is the second major threat that Israel needs to contend with today.
To date, rather than confront this Palestinian campaign with a similarly multidimensional counteroffensive under Netanyahu’s direct command, Israel has sufficed with one-dimensional responses that on their own can have little impact on the Palestinian campaign. The government’s so far stymied plan to mandate long prison sentences for rock throwers is one such limited and ultimately fruitless response.
Rock throwing is among the last components of the Palestinian campaign against Jerusalem. More significant aspects of the Palestinian operation against Israel’s capital include Abbas’s massive campaign of incitement, and the PA ’s organization, training, funding and deployment of forces tasked with functions relevant to the goal of undermining Israeli control of Jerusalem. The just-outlawed women’s brigade on the Temple Mount charged with assaulting Jewish visitors is a component of this task force.
Just as a decade ago then-prime minister Ariel Sharon raised a unique task force comprised of the military, police, and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) along with representatives of relevant government ministries to plan and execute the expulsion of the Jews of Gaza, so today, Netanyahu must raise a dedicated task force whose sole purpose is to dismantle and defeat the Palestinian campaign against the capital.
Israel can handle Jordanian snubs and threats.
It can survive a UN decision to let “Palestine” fly its flag next to Pakistan’s. Israel can diminish its engagement with Obama. It can contain the threats from IS in Sinai and Hamas in Gaza.
But Israel cannot stand idly by in the face of the rising threat from Iran. And it cannot take the Palestinians’ assault on its sovereignty over Jerusalem lying down.
We are not all powerful. And who knows, maybe Putin won’t want to trade horses with us. But with or without Putin, we are capable of preventing Iran from going nuclear, as we must, to ensure our survival.
And we can defeat the Palestinians and protect Jerusalem, as we must, to ensure our survival. Now is the time to avoid low-return investments and concentrate our efforts where they are most important and where we have the most to gain. www.CarolineGlick.com
Trading horses with Putin By CAROLINE B. GLICK
4.Netanyahu in Moscow By JPOST EDITORIAL 09/20/2015
· Netanyahu to Putin: S-300 missile sale to Iran undermines Middle East
Netanyahu to tell Putin that Russian weapons transfers to Syria threatening Israel
From Putin’s perspective, Russia’s involvement in Syria and the cementing of relations with the Assad regime is a key part of a longstanding effort to project power in the Middle East.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to be in Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin. The two will discuss Russia’s increasing military involvement in Syria.
From Putin’s perspective, Russia’s involvement in Syria and the cementing of relations with the Assad regime is a key part of a longstanding effort to project power in the Middle East. Russia has long maintained a naval base at the coastal city of Tartus. Now the country has built an airfield to complement it.
Russia’s involvement in Syria is arguably the most important Russian power projection in the region in decades, according to Stephen J. Blank, an expert on the Russian military at the American Foreign Policy Council.
He was quoted by The New York Times as comparing Russia’s Syria deployment to its involvement in Egypt in the 1970s.
Russia’s increasing intervention in Syria comes at a time when the Syrian migrant issue has become a major humanitarian crisis and a major challenge first and foremost for the European Union, but also for other countries directly or indirectly affected by the uprooting of millions of Syrians.
Putin seems to be positioning himself to take a leading role in formulating a solution for coping with the turmoil in Syria. Even if the Americans and the Europeans would like to isolate Putin for his revanchist designs in Ukraine and his role in strengthening the Assad regime, they will have no choice but to cooperate with him, since any diplomatic or military arrangement aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria will have to go through Moscow.
Since Russia’s military involvement in Syria is so deeply entrenched – indeed it is a central element of Russian foreign policy – there is no reason to believe that Netanyahu, representing little Israel, will be able to convince Putin to reduce that involvement.
In fact, Russia’s role in Syria as a supporter of the Assad regime does not necessarily clash with Israeli interests. It might even be a boon to Israel if the Russians can succeed in stabilizing the situation in Syria and weakening the influence of Islamic State and other al-Qaida-affiliated organizations, such as Jabhat al-Nusra.
What is of concern to Israel – and Netanyahu will raise this issue during his meeting with Putin – is the perception that Russia’s increased involvement in Syria makes it more difficult for Israel to operate against Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon.
As Russia commits increasingly larger resources to propping up the Assad regime against its enemies, the interests of Moscow are increasingly dovetailing with Iran and its proxies.
This complicates Israel efforts to protect its own security interests. One of these interests is to prevent the smuggling into Hezbollah-controlled Southern Lebanon of long-range missiles and other advanced arms supplied to Syria by Russia and Iran.
Israel’s ability to attack convoys traveling from Syria to Lebanon might be limited, particularly if there is a risk that such attacks might inadvertently hit Russian troops.
Moscow might even interpret an Israeli strike on Syrian troops or the Hezbollah as aggression against Russia.
At the same time, Israel and Russia share many common interests. First, there is a very large expat community of former Soviet citizens living in Israel. As a result, business ties and cultural ties between the two countries are strong.
Russia has also acquired military technology from Israel, especially drones.
Israel has agreed to harm relations with smaller countries to remain on good terms with Moscow. Out of deference to Russia, Israel scaled back its arms sales to Georgia, a country that once viewed Israel as a model and an inspiration as a small nation that survived a struggle for statehood in the face of overwhelming hostility from its neighbors.
Netanyahu will have to adopt a highly nuanced approach during his meeting with Putin. On one hand he will have to stress Israel’s right to protect its northern border, even if this entails launching pinpoint attacks against arms shipments to Hezbollah. At the same time, he will stress that Russia’s core interest in increasing its influence in Syria does not conflict with Israeli interests. It might even be a welcomed attempt to restore a modicum of stability to a region that has seen too much bloodshed and hardship
5.The Temple Mount is in danger By RABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ The author is rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites.
Amb. Ron Prosor: Abbas fuels Temple Mount fire, UN fans the flames
Border Police reservists recruited as security measures increase amid escalating violence
I ask you, dear readers of these words. Can you conceive of desecrating the holy site with ammunition? Would you dare bring arms meant for murder into your House of G-d?
Palestinians in front of the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount, in Jerusalem’s Old City. (photo credit:REUTERS)
Over 80 years ago, even before the establishment of the State of Israel and the return of Jewish sovereignty to the Temple Mount, the Muslim mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, began to spread lies about Jews trying to harm the Aqsa Mosque. Since then, this evil, false accusation has led to the deaths of many Jews and Muslims alike. Jews have paid with their lives for clinging to their forefathers’ heritage and to the Western Wall, and Muslims have died because of this false and contemptuous blood libel.
Forty-eight years have passed since the Temple Mount, the site of the Temple, returned to Jewish sovereignty – and never have Muslims been restricted from entering. On the contrary, the State of Israel has invested great effort to make freedom of worship possible on the Mount – even at the cost of harming Jewish visitors who wish to ascend to the site. (Without debating the issue of allowing Jews into the Temple Mount area, the Chief Rabbinate, which I represent, forbids Jewish entry to the Temple Mount.) And yet, from the depths of hatred, the cry of “The Temple Mount is in Danger” is sounded again, enlisting naïve people who will kill and be killed in this mendacious war.
Only a few days ago, on the eve of Rosh Hashana, another name was added to the horrific list of the Temple Mount libel victims. A Jew, wrapped in tallit and tefillin, was on his way to the Western Wall when he was nearly beaten to death by a gang of young Muslims. His only sin was his Jewish appearance, and for this he almost paid with his life.
Since then and while these words are being written, the Temple Mount is aflame. Make no mistake – this fire is burning from within the Mount, not outside of it. This fire is bursting forth from Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs that have been hoarded over a long period by heartless and Godless people in preparation for a well-planned attack on Jewish worshipers praying at the Western Wall during Rosh Hashana, which took place this week.
I ask you, dear readers of these words – can you conceive of desecrating the holy site with ammunition? Would you dare bring arms meant for murder into your House of God? Can you imagine making your God a co-conspirator in your plan to harm innocent men, women and children? Indeed, Haj Amin al-Husseini was correct in declaring that the Temple Mount is in danger. It is in danger because of those who call themselves “believers,” but use faith to rationalize their blind hatred and cruelty toward Jews.
The Temple Mount is in danger from those who claim to be men of religion, but who use their position to spread hatred, dispute and war. Is this God’s will? Is it for this purpose that we were all created? So that we shed each other’s blood forever? If the Temple Mount were sacred to you, you would not dare turn its mosques into armories and its gates into blockades.
If the Temple Mount were sacred to you, you would not build fortifications and blockades on it while drafting hotheaded youngsters to entrench themselves there until blood is spilled.
We Jews prayed on Rosh HaShana at the Western Wall for the entire world. We prayed for a year of blessings and abundance for all people, of all nations. How despicable and far from God is the attempt to harm Jews while they are praying such prayers.
My Muslim brothers, could it be that you would defame the Temple Mount in the name of its holiness? Could it be that you would desecrate the House of God in the name of faith? Seeing the terrible pictures of blood, fire and smoke in the place that is holy and dear to you, ask yourselves – is this what God desires? At the start of every new year, Jews bless each other by saying, “May the year and its maledictions end.”
I pray that these curses that have befallen us at the start of this year will end as they began, and that He who makes peace up in His high places will make peace for us.
The Temple Mount is in danger By RABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
6.Responding to Temple Mount terrorism By David M. Weinberg\
· Kol Nidre: Its message to us and to our nation & ‘Self-ghettoization’ in the State of Israel
Israel must parry Palestinian and Islamic incitement in Jerusalem and lay out a new diplomatic initiative to solidify the Jewish state’s rights to the holy site. 9/17/15
A Palestinian youth is silhouetted as he holds a toy gun & a Koran during a protest after Friday prayers on Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. (photo REUTERS)
After more than three years of Arab violence in Jerusalem, and escalating Islamic incitement and violence on the Temple Mount, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now says he is going to et tough on the preachers, instigators, bomb makers and stone-throwers that have been terrorizing Jerusalem and attempting to provoke holy Armageddon.
It’s about time. Yet security measures alone won’t be sufficient.
Yes, it is critical to beef up Israel’s armed presence in all eastern parts of the city – and to prevent, for example, the disgraceful situation where graves are regularly vandalized and mourners are attacked on the Mount of Olives. Or the intolerable situation where one can be stoned to death in your car while coming home from a Rosh Hashana meal.
Of course it is also imperative that the police and courts crack down on stone and firebomb-throwers. Fines of NIS 10,000 should be levied for each rock thrown, and National Insurance payments should be stripped from the families of attackers.
Sure it’s appropriate and long overdue to ban from the Temple Mount the “mourabitoun” and the “mourabitaat,” the Arabic terms for male and female sentries posted by the Islamic Movement to harass any and all non-Muslim visitors to the Mount.
Al-Aksa also should be cleared of all pipe bombs and pipe bomb makers, permanently.
The Mount should be closed to Muslim worshipers for 24 hours or 24 days each time the Wakf Muslim religious trust allows its premises to become a weapons depository or staging ground for riots.
But none of this will truly suffice. Just beefing up security won’t do the trick. Israel must not be content with “restoring calm” to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
It must parry Palestinian and Islamic incitement in Jerusalem and lay out a new diplomatic initiative to solidify Israel’s rights on the Temple Mount. Only a forward- looking and affirmative Israeli stance can create a new situation of reasonable compromise on the Temple Mount.
AFTER ALL, the so-called status quo on the Temple Mount is dead. It was killed by the mourabitoun, and by the slanders of the Palestinian Authority-appointed Wakf imams on the Mount, who daily deny any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount (and indeed to any part of the Land of Israel).
Consider this: PA President Mahmoud Abbas screeched Wednesday about “filthy” Jewish feet that were “desecrating” Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
“Al-Aksa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” he bellowed. “They [the Jews] have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem.”
Abbas went on to babble about (false) Jewish threats to the mosques on the Mount & to praise the mourabitoun. “Each drop of blood that was spilled in Jerusalem is pure blood as long as it’s for the sake of Allah. Every shahid (martyr) will be in heaven & every wounded person will be rewarded, by Allah’s will.”
Such ugly and irresponsible talk fuels and legitimizes the Arab violence. The PA has become an extremist, not a moderate, actor in this matter.
(Cynically, Abbas has revved up tensions around the Temple Mount in each of the last three Septembers, in advance of his appearances at the UN General Assembly – a desperate and dangerous ploy aimed at gaining global attention).
THE NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT prefers to merely “quiet” things down, and maintain the situation whereby Jews have only limited (and increasingly impossible) visitation rights on the Temple Mount and are all-together forbidden from praying there while the Muslims claim exclusive religious rights and have rigged the site as an armed camp.
For fear of Arab world and international response, the Netanyahu government is hesitant to attempt to truly change this situation.
This is no longer acceptable. Israel cannot redress the situation by just attempting to “contain” things. Israel should not swallow the Islamic violence that has become the new status quo on the Mount. Most of all, Israel cannot accept the slanders at the heart of the Palestinian-Islamic narrative regarding the Mount and regarding the Jewish presence in Zion.
Time to level the playing field. In the context of attempts to renew peace talks with the Palestinians, Israel should put on the table a plan to bring equity & fairness to the administration of the Temple Mount – a plan to bring about a true sharing of sovereignty over the place most holy to the Jewish People.
This will require Palestinian recognition of the Jewish People’s ancient ties to the holy site and to the Holy Land, and the facilitation of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
This can be effected either through a time-sharing prayer arrangement similar to that in place at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, or through a synagogue tucked away on the fringes of the vast plaza that won’t overshadow the two large Muslim structures on the Mount. It will also entail the end of illegal and destructive Wakf excavations on the Temple Mount without Israeli archeological supervision.
These demands are no more “radical” or “explosive” than Palestinian demands for a massive Israeli release of Palestinian terrorist prisoners or the Palestinian demand for an end to building in the settlements or the dismantling of settlements. They are legitimate, levelheaded and judicious demands.
They constitute a reasonable and moderate Israeli negotiating stance, and should become part of Israel’s diplomatic oeuvre.
Nor would it be rash to advance such claims. Israel’s insistence on national and prayer rights on the Temple Mount will not cause World War III. Muslim threats to march on Jerusalem if the (non-existent) status quo is altered – are phony; nothing more than the usual hysterics and posturing that characterize Arab politics.
The new position proposed by Israel will engender Palestinian (and American) resistance, but with both resoluteness and sensitivity Israel can succeed and overcome the opposition. Jerusalem is still a consensus issue in Israeli society and politics. The new Netanyahu government would enjoy widespread public backing for action to shore-up Israel’s stake in the holy city and especially on the Temple Mount.
www.davidmweinberg.com
Responding to Temple Mount terrorism By David M. Weinberg\
7.The memories and pain are always there By Yehudit Tayar 9/20/2015
Yehudit Tayar lives with her family in Bet Horon in the Benjamin in the Benjamin Region for over 30 years, serves as an emergency first response medic, sits on the Board of Directors of Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron, and is one of the spokespeople of the Jewish pioneers in Yesha.
B”H
No matter how long it has been it is still so painful and brings nightmares to me- to all of us- yes I realize that I suffer from PTS from this and other experiences that I lived through in the military operations, and terror attacks. But Yom Kippur 1973 is something that all of us who went through this can not forget or be relieved of the pain and trauma. I am sending this to be printed however, not because of my own personal trauma but also in order to remind our Nation of the price our soldiers and our families paid then and pay now in order to protect our Torah, our Land and our Nation.
May we have leadership that allows us to prevent the violence and terror and attacks against us and not to merely “respond”.
Gmar Hatima Tova to all of Am Yisrael.
These poems were written during the time during the Yom Kippur War and after when I struggled between despair and hope and prayer following the IDF reporting to me that my husband was MIA.
Oh Israel
Land of hopes
Land of war
Dreams we hold
Of our children growing tall.
From all corners
We have come
To build a home
For everyone.
Oh Land of beauty
Of prayers and work
Endless problems, and duties
Behind all which our future lurks.
A hundred cultures interchange
Between thousand minds
Searching for common plain.
Million faces
Search on high
Each independent yet all try
To reach and build this dream of peace
A Land of one – of unity and happiness.
I was alone with a new baby when Ami left on Yom Kippur and was informed of his being MIA a week and a half before what was to be our first anniversary – trying to be a Mommy to our new daughter I kept holding her and promising – praying that she would see her Daddy again.
The Thing Most Beautiful
The thing most
Beautiful to me
Is not just the things I see
But tranquil moods
And warm sunshine
The feeling of inner peace
Which glows inside.
The smells of grass freshly cut
Or coffee steaming in a cup.
Baby’s skin after a bath
Or flowers growing
On a dirt path.
I only recently told my husband and family about the book and what I wrote and I dedicate these words and prayers to our MIA’s and their families. I who lived through this nightmare can never forget and daily pray for each of our missing and their families.
And for our brother Yonatan Pollard to finally be released and brought home.
B’ahavat Zion, Yehudit Tayar
The memories and pain are always there By Yehudit Tayar
8.Er, When Did They Shoot? By Yisrael Medad
9/18/2015 Yisrael Medad – I am a resident of Shiloh, with my wife and children, and now grandchildren, since 1981, having come on Aliyah in 1970. I have served in a volunteer capacity as a Yesha Council spokesperson, twice a member of Amana’s secretariat, Benjamin Regional Council plenum member and mayor of Shiloh. I was a parliamentary aide for Geula Cohen and two other MKs, an advisor to a Minister, vice-chairman and executive director of Israel’s Media Watch and currently, am Information and Content Resource coordinator for the Begin Heritage Center.
This site is reporting: Troops from the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion had laid an ambush at the road connecting the towns of Itamar and Elon Moreh in anticipation of an attack on Israeli vehicles. They opened fire just after the terrorists launched their potentially life threatening Molotov cocktail assault…
My comments:
1. If it was after, that was a non-preventive act. Not too smart. And not very “life saving”.
2. Did they have a camera? If so, I think it would be better hasbara-wise, to display those photographs.
3. I am not sure, but if the terrorists could have been apprehended and photographed with terror weapons on their person, that would have been the best.
4. In the first Intifada, the unwieldy rules were if a terrorist, after tossing his firebomb, turns and runs, he cannot be shot at.
5. The law is an a__
Er, When Did They Shoot? By Yisrael Medad
GREEN-LINED
Israel Medad
9.The GA leaves me unsettled by Israel Medad 9/20/15 [The GA is the annual General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations & most of the pro-Israel Jewish organizations – plus a few ‘other types’. Gail Sez]
Soon, on November 8 to be exact, the GA2015 will convene. One of the sessions is interesting:
Addressing BDS in your community
What are real action steps for talking about Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in a constructive way in your community? The Israel Action Network [IAN] is back, reprising their standing-room-only session from the 2014 GA in this interactive workshop designed to help participants gain insight into messaging and outreach strategies.
I checked the list of speakers. I see MK Isaac Herzog of Israel’s Labour Party. And Rabbi David Saperstein of the Reform Movement who was quoted saying:
If Israel is going to succeed in defeating the delegitimization campaign, “we have to distinguish between delegitimization and BDS under any circumstances.” Not distinguishing between the Israeli artists’ boycott of a new theater in the Ariel settlement and boycotts on goods made in the West Bank, and calling Israel an apartheid state, means “we’re running out of the community millions of Israel’s avid supporters,” I checked the staff of IAN. I am unsettled even if I haven’t checked all the backgrounds and ideological stands of all the speakers.
BDS stems from false claims regarding Israel’s administration of and the residency of Jews in the area of the Jewish people’s historic homeland – Judea and Samaria – in connection with issues of legal rights, behavior, cultural and archaeological preservation, terror, human rights and civil liberties.
One very good way to confront BDS, especially when discussing matters with a home town base, such as those to be gathered at the GA, is to meet with, talk to and get to know in depth the Jews who are the ‘guilty’ parties, as it were. We revenant Jews who have returned to our patrimony, who raise our children here, who grow agriculture products, who produce wines, who develop outstanding technological industries, who have established a successful university (with local Arab residents as students in addition to Israeli Arabs) and have much more to relay.
How can one deal adequately with such an issue, which outrageously and falsely calls Israel an “apartheid state”, without, at the very least, getting to meet the people who are blamed for the situation they are trying to confront? Is that a logical programming decision?
We residents of Yesha are not the devil. In fact, I know that many participants are sympathetic to our cause and many more, if given the information and the opportunity to actually meet someone from ‘across the Green Line’, would not be uncomfortable with thinking he/she was defending something that shouldn’t be receiving such assistance.
Will there be a reconsideration at the higher echelons of the GA staff and management?
The GA leaves me unsettled by Israel Medad
10.Palestinian police brutally beat 16-year-old [Arab] boy during protest By Khaled Abu Toameh JPost.com 09/20/15
· From exile, a divisive figure rattles Palestinian politics
Analysis: Israel must prepare for Palestinian Authority’s collapse
The incident was caught on video last Friday after police descended upon protester demonstrating against Jews visiting the Temple Mount.
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday announced a series of punitive measures following the brutal beating of a Palestinian boy during a demonstration in Bethlehem.
The incident, which took place last Friday, was caught on video, which has since gone viral on social media.
The video shows a number of Palestinian anti-riot policemen beating a 16-year-old boy during a demonstration in protest against visits by Jews to the Temple Mount.
Following the incident, the PA formed a commission of inquiry and said that the policemen acted in violation of orders.
On Sunday, the commission decided to dismiss four high-ranking police officers, including deputy commander of the Bethlehem Police, Essam Nabhan.
The three other officers who were dismissed from their jobs are Shaher al-Qaisi, Mahmoud Abu Mweis and Sameeh Yusef.
All four will face disciplinary hearings for their role in the assault, the commission ruled.
The commission also sentenced five other policemen to three months in prison. They were identified as: Jamal Hamdan, Bassem Smoudi, Ribhi Hanoun, Ezaldin Dib and Muath Abed. In addition, the commission decided to delay their promotion for one year.
On Saturday, scores of Bethlehem residents protested outside the headquarters of the PA security Forces in the city, chanting slogans against PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The protesters called for Abbas’s resignation and accused him of being an “American agent.”
Palestinian police brutally beat 16-year-old boy during protest By Khaled Abu Toameh
11.PA and Fatah officials behind Jerusalem terror by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik “[Fatah official] Nabil Shaath… called on the Palestinian and Arab masses to carry out riots of rage” Fatah spokesman: “Go to the areas of conflict in order to ‘explode’ in front of the occupier and its assistants” Mahmoud Abbas: “We will not sit idly by in the face of these attacks” Mahmoud Abbas’s Adviser Sultan Abu Al-Einein “concluded with a call to Fatah movement members…[to] carry out widespread public uprisings, in order to make the enemy pay a price for its actions ‘because the hand that will be raised against the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] will be amputated.'” Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman: “East Jerusalem and the places holy to Islam and Christianity are a red line, and we will not sit idly by” http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001giVCNQVS-S39IkhoW99iZ9dhgkNXoY92cJ5kT7hQibOPjuXs1yIk76r9nBWLlgmm9EWCN-Qyy93CFaZDB1EIsJ5zTBvV6sYu4PX_r1yoDQIkCd3NpkPuZ2jdOXt1U1NUlExIkE5FTWIVJQu-6E-Q9QZ-zruhyLvKAPsHYpmR_XAg2D1CZ3tWdNaVvxnRvRcO8RgQevauCL7W6rDjNZPrMQ==&c=o6LioL53crfS5E7S6C96-bb2vAkjSPy44q24mRRN6QlHbcqyzPAbtA==&ch=vzl70sJW-JkKpDCMkQQ14V4xkzap18ABluOwX_-tqbQIhpy6W5ja1g== The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have been the driving force behind the ongoing riots in Jerusalem that peaked during the Jewish New Year with the murder of Alexander Levlovitch, whose car was hit by rocks thrown by Palestinians. Senior Palestinian Authority and Fatah leaders close to Mahmoud Abbas have called for violence to prevent Jews from visiting the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest religious site. The following are some of these statements: Nabil Shaath, Fatah Central Committee member & Commissioner of Int’l Relations “Dr. Nabil Shaath stated… that the continuation of the Israeli occupation’s attacks on the Noble Sanctuary (i.e., Jews visiting the Temple Mount) and the Ribat fighters (Murabitin – those carrying out Ribat, religious conflict/war to protect land claimed to be Islamic) will be the spark that sets off the impending explosion, whose onset and scope no one can predict. Likewise, he called on the Palestinian and Arab masses to carry out riots of rage.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 14, 2015] Official Fatah Spokesman in Jerusalem, Raafat Alayan “Official Fatah Spokesman in Jerusalem Raafat Alayan called on ‘all Palestinian bodies and national and Islamic factions in all regions of the homeland to enlist and go to the areas of conflict in order to ‘explode’ in front of the occupier and its assistants because of its repeated actions and attacks against the Al-Aqsa [Mosque].’ Likewise, he noted that the Fatah movement called on all the schools in Jerusalem, including the Husni Al-Ashhab School, to go out to the streets in order to express their support of the destination of the Prophet Muhammad’s Night Journey (i.e., tradition that he flew to Al-Aqsa Mosque), and their opposition to its desecration by the settlers…” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 14, 2015] Mahmoud Abbas’ Adviser and Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu Al-Einein “Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu Al-Einein warned of the Israeli enemy’s attack against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem… Abu Al-Einein stated that the Israeli enemy aims to destroy about half of the Al-Aqsa Mosque after it completely takes it over, and called on the Arab and Islamic nations to intervene immediately on all levels in order to restrain Israel and defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque from what the Jewish extremists are plotting against it. Abu Al-Einein called on our people everywhere to come to Al-Aqsa and carry out Ribat (religious conflict/war to protect land claimed to be Islamic -Ed.), and not to leave it as easy prey for the plots of the Israeli extremist right to destroy it and build the alleged Temple in its place. He concluded with a call to Fatah movement members and all of the factions to enlist for Jerusalem and carry out widespread public uprisings, in order to make the enemy pay a price for its actions ‘because the hand that will be raised against the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] will be amputated.'” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 14, 2015] PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh: Headline: “The occupation and its extremists treat Al-Aqsa as they please. The president [Abbas]: ‘We will not sit idly by in the face of these attacks'” “The official spokesman of [PA] President [Mahmoud Abbas] Nabil Abu Rudeineh stated: ‘We strongly condemn the occupation’s army and police invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the attack of [Muslim] worshippers. East Jerusalem and the places holy to Islam and Christianity are a red line, and we will not sit idly by in the face of these attacks.’ He added that President [Mahmoud] Abbas has held intensive discussions with all Arab regional and international bodies, and especially with Jordan, Morocco, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in order to deal with the fierce attack taking place against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 14, 2015] |
PA and Fatah officials behind Jerusalem terror Secretary answers series of questions raised in article by ToI editor David Horovitz, which were put to him by Congressman Joe Wilson in Capitol Hill hearing BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF 9/19/15Secretary of State John Kerry, center, flanked by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, right & Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tue, July 28, 2015, before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the Iran nuclear agreement. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Iran will receive no sanctions relief whatsoever under its nuclear deal with world powers until it has eliminated almost its entire stockpile of enriched uranium, removed two-thirds of its centrifuges and implemented all the deal’s anti-cheating transparency measures, US Secretary of State John Kerry has promised US lawmakers. he secretary gave the assurance in a written response to questions raised in a July op-ed article by The Times of Israel’s editor David Horovitz, which were then put to Kerry by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina when the secretary testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in late July. Kerry replied in writing this week to 10 of 16 questions raised by Horovitz; Wilson’s office said the congressman was still awaiting responses from Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. In response to a question as to whether the nuclear deal (or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) will “usher in a new era of global commercial interaction with Iran, reviving the Iranian economy and releasing financial resources that Iran will use to bolster its military forces and terrorist networks,” Kerry stated: “As envisioned in the JCPOA, Iran will not receive any sanctions relief until after the IAEA has verified that it has completed major nuclear steps – steps that result in increasing the breakout timeline four-fold, eliminating 98 percent of its enriched uranium stockpile, cutting two-thirds of its centrifuges, and implementing the unprecedented transparency measures that will allow us to detect any attempts to cheat.” Speaking to a group of clerics earlier this month, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said world powers must lift international sanctions and not merely suspend them as part of the deal. Khamenei said “there will be no deal” if the sanctions are not lifted, in remarks read by a state TV anchorman. “We insisted that sanctions ought to be lifted, not suspended,” he said. Khamenei also released a chilling video this week in which he warned of an American defeat in any war with Iran. Read: Full text of Kerry’s answers In other responses to the Horovitz questions, Kerry made clear that if Iran does not by October 15 satisfy the IAEA as regards the previous military dimensions of its nuclear program, as promised under a separate “road map agreement,” then “we will not implement our commitments to provide sanctions relief.” Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina reads out an op-ed by ToI’s David Horovitz at the House hearing on the Iran nuclear deal, July 28, 2015 (courtesy) He also rejected concerns that the deal’s inspection provisions could be outflanked by Iran, stating, “We are confident that IAEA testing would detect the presence of nuclear material if suspected in an unauthorized location.” In response to a question regarding Iran’s alleged responsibility for the bombing of the main Jewish community center offices in Buenos Aires in 1994, Kerry noted that the US “has consistently underscored the importance of efforts to ensure justice for the victims of the AMIA bombing and urged the perpetrators be held accountable.” He added, however, that the US believes Iran’s influence in that region “is on the decline” following the death in 2013 “of Iran’s most prominent ally in the Western Hemisphere, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.” He added: “We continue to work with our partners to counter Iranian influence around the world.” Asked about the Iranian leadership’s incitement of hatred among its people against Israel and the United States, and its relentless calls for the annihilation of Israel, Kerry said: “We take issue with a great deal of Iran’s behavior and continue our work on a number of bilateral and multilateral fronts to address each of these issues.” He promised that the US “will continue to speak out and act against anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and bigotry wherever they occur. We have condemned prior anti-Semitic rhetoric by certain Iranian officials publicly and strongly, and we track this rhetoric closely.” Kerry also flatly rejected the notion that the nuclear accord entrenches the ayatollahs’ rule. Asked, “Does the nuclear deal further cement Iran’s repressive and ideologically rapacious regime in power?”, Kerry was emphatic: “No. In fact, this deal eliminates the greatest threat, which would be an Iran armed with a nuclear weapon.” He vowed that the US “will continue to counter Iran’s destabilizing and threatening actions in the region aggressively. The President is committed to working closely with Israel, the Gulf countries and our other regional partners to do just that.” Wilson read out the Horovitz op-ed, “16 reasons nuke deal is an Iranian victory and a Western catastrophe,” at a House hearing on the Iran nuclear deal on July 28, and asked Kerry, Moniz and Lew to address the questions it raised. The op-ed argued that the US-backed nuclear deal with Iran “legitimizes Iran’s nuclear program, allows it to retain core nuclear facilities, permits it to continue research in areas that will dramatically speed its breakout to the bomb should it choose to flout the deal, but also enables it to wait out those restrictions and proceed to become a nuclear threshold state with full international legitimacy.” Horovitz concluded the piece by saying, “No wonder Iran and its allies are celebrating. Nobody else should be.” Wilson said he was reading the questions into the record so that Kerry could provide answers over the coming weeks. (Starts at 1:51:10) At the hearing, Kerry warned members of Congress in the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that if they voted against the nuclear deal negotiated with Iran, Tehran would move forward toward an atomic bomb, international sanctions would crumble and the US would be left with none of the access and inspections provided for by the accord. US Secretary answers a series of questions on Iran deal by Times of Israel editor that were read into the Congressional record by Rep. Joe WilsonBY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF September 19, 2015, 7:19 pm In this May 30, 2015, file photo, US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Geneva, Switzerland, during negotiations on the future of the Iranian nuclear program. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool, File) Response by US Secretary of State John Kerry to questions for the record submitted by Representative Joe Wilson, House Foreign Affairs Committee, July 28, 2015, as raised in “16 reasons nuke deal is an Iranian victory and a Western catastrophe,” a July 14 op-ed article by The Times of Israel’s David Horovitz. (Kerry’s written response was provided to the Times of Israel by Wilson’s office.) Question 1: Was the Iranian regime required, as a condition for this deal, to disclose the previous military dimensions of its nuclear program… in order both to ensure effective inspections of all relevant facilities? Answer: As part of the JCPOA, the IAEA and Iran have agreed to a Road-Map Agreement in order to address the agency’s concerns about the possible military dimensions (PMD) of Iran’s nuclear program. Iran has committed to implement, by October 15, its obligations under this Road-Map Agreement. Sanctions relief will only be provided after Iran gives the IAEA the information and access it needs by completing the steps it has agreed to take in the Road-Map Agreement with the IAEA – in addition to the other major nuclear steps it must take by Implementation Day. If it does not, we will not implement our commitments to provide sanctions relief. We will be in continuous contact with the IAEA to make sure Iran fully implements its commitments under the Road-Map so that the IAEA can complete its investigation of possible military dimensions (PMD). Iran will no longer be able to stonewall the IAEA and string out the process. Iran must address the questions the IAEA poses and the IAEA must have what it needs to prepare its final assessment. Question 2: Has the Iranian regime been required to submit to “anywhere, anytime” inspections of any and all facilities suspected of engaging in rogue nuclear-related activity? Answer: Under this agreement, Iran will be subject to the most rigorous and demanding verification and monitoring regime ever negotiated for a nuclear program. The IAEA will be able to get timely access to the places it needs to go for inspections, or Iran will be in violation of the JCPOA and risk the re-imposition of sanctions. For example, the IAEA will be allowed daily access to Natanz, and Fordow for 15 years. Further, the JCPOA includes a host of transparency measures that go beyond those provided by the Additional Protocol (AP), including monitoring key centrifuge components for 20 years and monitoring uranium from the time it is mined for 25 years. In the context of the JCPOA, if the IAEA has concerns regarding possible undeclared nuclear material or activities inconsistent with the JCPOA at locations that have not been declared under Iran’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement or AP, the IAEA may request access in a time-bound process. If Iran and the IAEA are unable to reach satisfactory arrangements within 14 days, the issue would be considered by the Joint Commission, where a majority vote – which Russia, China, and Iran could not block – would compel Iranian access. Any Iranian failure to allow access at the end of a time-bound 24 day period would be a violation of the JCPOA and would be grounds for snapping sanctions back. Even if Iran were to attempt to sanitize a location before granting access, radioactive evidence is not easily removed. We are confident that IAEA testing would detect the presence of nuclear material if suspected in an unauthorized location. Question 3: Has the international community established procedures setting out how it will respond to different classes of Iranian violations, to ensure that the international community can act with sufficient speed and efficiency to thwart a breakout to the bomb? Answer: Under the JCPOA, we have a wide range of options to respond to any Iranian non-compliance, whether it be significant non-performance or more minor instances of non-compliance by Iran. Specifically, the United States has the ability to re-impose both unilateral and multilateral nuclear-related sanctions in the event of non-performance by Iran. And, in the case of UN sanctions, under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, we could do so even over the objections of any member of the Security Council, including China or Russia. This unilateral ability to snap back all of the UNSC sanctions gives us extraordinary leverage to get cooperation from other countries if we seek to take lesser steps instead. In addition, we have a range of other options for addressing minor non-compliance. These range from designating specific entities that are involved in activities inconsistent with the JCPOA, snapping back certain domestic sanctions to respond to minor but persistent violations of the JCPOA, or using our leverage in the Joint Commission on procurement requests. This means that snapback is not an “all or nothing” option. Question 4: Has the Iranian regime been required to halt its arming, financing and training of the Hezbollah terrorist army in south Lebanon? Answer: We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s support for terror and destabilizing behavior. That is why, irrespective of the deal reached on Iran’s nuclear program, we will continue to enforce our sanctions aggressively against Iran’s support for terrorism, human rights abuses, and destabilizing activities in the region. These include sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the IRGC-Qods Force, its leadership, and its entire network of front companies. Moreover, even after the JCPOA sanctions relief is implemented, US secondary sanctions will continue to target foreign parties doing business with sanctioned Iranian persons. Generally, this means that anyone worldwide who transacts with or supports individuals or entities sanctioned in connection with Iran’s support for terrorism – as well as any Iranian person who remains on our SDN List – may risk being cut off from the US financial system. Similarly, any individual or entity that provides material support to designated groups like Hezbollah, or others sanctioned under our terrorism authorities, can themselves be targeted for sanctions. This means they would have their property blocked and would lose the ability to do business with US persons. Recent examples of such targeting actions include a Hezbollah fundraising and recruitment network in Africa, and a group of Hezbollah front companies and facilitators in Lebanon and Iraq. These sanctions are in no way affected by the JCPOA, will remain in place, and will continue to be enforced actively. Furthermore, we are intensifying our collaboration with Israel and the Persian Gulf states to better track these networks and to put them out of business. Question 5: Has the Iranian regime been required to surrender for trial the members of its leadership placed on an Interpol watch list for their alleged involvement in the bombing, by a Hezbollah suicide bomber, of the AMIA Jewish community center offices in Buenos Aires in 1994 that resulted in the deaths of 85 people? Has the Iranian regime undertaken to close its 80 estimated “cultural centers” in South America from which it allegedly fosters terrorist networks? Answer: Since 2007, Argentina has sought the arrest of Iranians suspected of involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Iran has refused to surrender these suspects. The US government has consistently underscored the importance of efforts to ensure justice for the victims of the AMIA bombing and urged the perpetrators be held accountable. We remain vigilant in monitoring Iranian activity in the Western Hemisphere. We assess that Iran’s influence in the region is on the decline following the death of Iran’s most prominent ally in the Western Hemisphere, former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2013. We continue to work with our partners to counter Iranian influence around the world. Question 6: Has the Iranian leadership agreed to stop inciting hatred among its people against Israel & United States and to stop its relentless calls for the annihilation of Israel? Answer: We take issue with a great deal of Iran’s behavior and continue our work on a number of bilateral and multilateral fronts to address each of these issues. We will continue to speak out and act against anti-Semitism and all forms of hatred and bigotry wherever they occur. We have condemned prior anti-Semitic rhetoric by certain Iranian officials publicly and strongly, and we track this rhetoric closely. It is for all of these reasons that this deal is so important, because an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be far more capable of fomenting instability in the region. The JCPOA eliminates the nuclear threat and allows us to continue to address these other troubling issues. Question 7: Has the Iranian regime agreed to halt executions, currently running at an average of some three a day, the highest rate for 20 years? Answer: We remain deeply concerned about Iran’s human rights violations and will enforce our sanctions strictly against Iran for its human rights violations. We have made this clear to the Iranian government. US statutory sanctions focused on Iran’s human rights violations will not be affected by the final deal on Iran’s nuclear program and we will continue to vigorously enforce them. The JCPOA envisions the suspension and eventual lifting only of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran. Question 8: Does the nuclear deal shatter the painstakingly constructed sanctions regime that forced Iran to the negotiating table? Answer: No, it does not. Iran will only receive substantial sanctions relief after it verifiably completes all of its key nuclear-related steps. We have the ability to snap back multilateral and unilateral sanctions into place if Iran violates the deal. US statutory sanctions focused on Iran’s support for terrorism, human rights abuses, and destabilizing activities will not be affected by the final deal on Iran’s nuclear program, and we will continue to vigorously enforce them. This also includes US sanctions that target WMD and missile proliferation around the world. Furthermore, the Security Council will terminate previous sanctions measures after Iran takes all of its key nuclear steps, but it will also re-establish for a considerable number of years binding UN restrictions governing permissible nuclear activities, as well as prohibitions on conventional arms and ballistic missile related activities. On the multilateral sanctions regime, however, if we walk away from the deal that our partners and over 90 additional countries around the world publicly support, our partners will not walk away with us. Instead, they’ll walk away from the tough multilateral sanctions regime they helped us to put in place. We will be left to go it alone, and whatever limited economic pressure we could apply would be unlikely to compel Tehran to negotiate or to make any deeper concessions. Question 9: Will the deal usher in a new era of global commercial interaction with Iran, reviving the Iranian economy and releasing financial resources that Iran will use to bolster its military forces and terrorist networks? Answer: As envisioned in the JCPOA, Iran will not receive any sanctions relief until after the IAEA has verified that it has completed major nuclear steps – steps that result in increasing the breakout timeline four-fold, eliminating 98 percent of its enriched uranium stockpile, cutting two-thirds of its centrifuges, and implementing the unprecedented transparency measures that will allow us to detect any attempts to cheat. If they do attempt to cheat, we retain the leverage to snap sanctions back. While we are under no illusions that this deal will prevent Iran from engaging in any of its other troubling behaviors, it prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which would make it far more capable of fomenting instability in the region. Just as we struck agreements with the Soviet Union at a time when they were threatening our allies, arming proxies against us, proclaiming their commitment to destroy our way of life, and had nuclear weapons pointed at all of our major cities, this deal allows us to take off the table the most immediate threat. We know from experience that even crippling sanctions are not enough to prevent Iranian support for militancy or terrorism, so abandoning diplomacy and attempting to ramp up pressure would not resolve this concern. In the absence of a deal, Iran will resume the nuclear activities it must abandon under the JCPOA, making it far more dangerous and difficult to deal with. Question 10: Does the nuclear deal further cement Iran’s repressive and ideologically rapacious regime in power? Answer: No. In fact, this deal eliminates the greatest threat, which would be an Iran armed with a nuclear weapon. We have been clear from the beginning of this process that the JCPOA was intended prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is and will remain peaceful going forward. This deal is about stopping Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon, not changing all of the regime’s behavior. We will continue to counter Iran’s destabilizing and threatening actions in the region aggressively. The President is committed to working closely with Israel, the Gulf countries and our other regional partners to do just that. Our sanctions targeting Iran’s support for terrorism, its human rights abuses and its destabilizing activities in the region will remain in place and we will continue to vigorously enforce them. Full text of Kerry response to Horovitz op-ed |
|