Iran Deal redux: “Reviving the JCPOA will ensure either the emergence of a nuclear Iran or a desperate war to stop it”

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

THE ATLANTIC
The Case Against the Iran Deal
by Michael Oren and Yossi Klein Halevi
January 21, 2021

…Why, then, aren’t Israelis and Arabs—those with the most to lose from Iranian nuclearization—also demanding a return to the JCPOA? Why aren’t they panicking over its dissolution? The answer is simple: The JCPOA didn’t diminish the Iranian nuclear threat; it magnified it. Iran needs to acquire three components in order to become a military nuclear power: highly enriched uranium, a functional warhead, and a missile capable of delivering it. The JCPOA addresses only the first of these efforts in any detail, and even then, offers merely partial and temporary solutions. The deal largely ignores the second effort, and actually advances the third. READ MORE

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NYT writer carrying water for Iran was an Iranian agent

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Frequent New York Times Opinion Writer Was Secret Iranian Agent, Federal Prosecutors Charge
by Ira Stoll
January 21, 2021

The New York Times published more than a dozen opinion articles and letters to the editor by Kaveh Afrasiabi. A 2018 Times op-ed under his byline identified him as “a former adviser to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team.” A 2012 Times op-ed identified him as “a former political science professor at Tehran University and former adviser to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team.” This week, Afrasiabi was arrested and charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Iranian government. READ MORE

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Jerusalem Post provides former PM Ehud Olmert a platform for a nasty, partisan attack on philanthropist and political donor Sheldon Adelson days after his death

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
I hate everything Sheldon Adelson loved about Israel
by Ehud Olmert
January 22, 2021

…[Sheldon] Adelson wanted an extreme right-wing America that was fractious and in conflict with most of the Western world. He supported a nationalistic America that was involved in a conflict of the Cold War variety and that would solve the Iranian problem by dropping a nuclear bomb…He hoped with all his heart that Donald Trump would make his dreams come true. And to some extent, with everything pertaining to Israel, Trump was remarkably close to Adelson…Adelson LOVED an Israel that ignores its Arab citizens and refuses to recognize their equal rights. Adelson believed in a right-wing, nationalistic and fundamentalist Israel, though he himself was not a religious person. READ MORE

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“How support for a Jewish state is eminently compatible with American patriotism”

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
Why I’m a Zionist
by Douglas J. Feith
January 18, 2021

There are negative reasons to be a Zionist, and there are affirmative reasons. The negative ones, which relate to historical anti-Jewish hatred and abuse, make the humanitarian case for Zionism — that the Jews need a state because they need a refuge. That argument launched the Zionist movement in the 19th century, and it remains valid to this day. The affirmative reasons relate to Jewish civilization. They boil down to the conviction that Jewish culture is an invaluable inheritance that only in the Land of Israel, in a state with a Jewish majority, can be developed fully and perpetuated reliably. READ MORE

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American Airlines NY-Tel Aviv tickets go on sale next week

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
American Airlines to launch new direct New York-Israel flights
by Staff
January 21, 2021

American Airlines is set to launch a new direct flight between New York and Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport, the airline announced in a statement. The flights are set to begin on May 6, and will take place daily throughout the year between Ben-Gurion Airport and JFK in New York. Customers will be able to pre-order kosher meals on every flight, and kosher wine will be available for everyone regarding which class their seat is in. WiFi will also be available on every flight…In addition, another flight to Israel from Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas, American Airlines’ largest hub, is set to be launched sometime this year, though it won’t be a direct flight. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Government to vote on immediately suspending all passenger flights for two weeks Airport to close for 14 days, pending cabinet approval Sunday, as Israel fears import of virus mutations

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“As long as the Jewish state maintains the upper hand—and has the will to survive—its existential enemies will be forced to comply”

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Israel’s normalization with four Muslim nations: The good news and the bad
by Raymond Ibrahim
January 21, 2021

Israel recently signed agreements establishing relations with four Muslim nations: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Both good and bad news surround this development. The bad news is bland and predictable: a permanent peace between Israel and its Muslim neighbors is, according to Islamic law, or sharia, impossible: any land that was once part of Dar al-Islam—that is, any land that was ever conquered by Muslims for any length of time—is always part of Islam and must be recovered by any means necessary—preferably jihad. READ MORE

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“American Jews continue to remain tethered to the party that refuses to denounce Jew-hatred in its midst while embracing lawmakers who are raging anti-Semites, including Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila Jayapal, Betty McCollum, and Keith Ellison”

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

AMERICAN THINKER
Democrat Hypocrisy on Condemning Anti-Semitism Is Becoming Tiresome
by Lauri B. Regan
January 10, 2021

As an American Jew who retired after 30 years of practicing law in order to fight anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, including spending the past 15 years working with many Jewish and non-Jewish organizations on these issues, I am disgusted at the hypocrisy of Democrat lawmakers and liberal Jewish leaders who are blind to anti-Semites in their midst while using anti-Semitism on the right as a political tool for grandstanding and self-promotion. I have written extensively over the years about rising anti-Semitism in the Democrat Party and on the left more generally. READ MORE

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“Yet at any other age than the divisive present, the report would not have been seen as controversial”

Posted on January 21, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH WORLD REVIEW
Thoughts on the 1776 Commission and its report
by Victor Davis Hanson
January 21, 2021

…The unanimously approved conclusions focused on the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the historical challenges to these founding documents and the need for civic renewal. The 16-member commission was diverse in the widest sense of the familiar adjective. It included historians, lawyers, academics, scholars, authors, former elected officials and past public servants. Whether because the report was issued by a Donald Trump-appointed commission, or because the conclusions questioned the controversial and flawed New York Times-sponsored 1619 Project, there was almost immediate criticism from the left. READ MORE

NATIONAL REVIEW Editorial Board: The Spirit of 1776 Joe Biden went out of his way on his first day in office to cancel Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission…It sought to counterbalance the hostile view of American history advanced by the “1619 Project,” which jumped almost directly from the pages of the New York Times to the curriculum in schools around the country. That project made basic historical errors that it corrected only grudgingly and under pressure from some of the foremost historians in the country…

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Bret Stephens to President Biden: The US can achieve a lot “when it abandons decades of conventional wisdom regarding the nature of the Middle East’s problems and the solutions to them”

Posted on January 17, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE
Memo to President Biden: Please Don’t Mess Up the Abraham Accords
by Bret Stephens
February 2021

… The prospect that the Arab–Israeli conflict, long thought to be the world’s most intractable, might be brought to an end much sooner than anyone dreamed possible offers powerful lessons to the incoming Biden administration for how to conduct a successful Mideast peace policy—provided it has the humility and good sense to learn them. This is a story in three parts. The first is about the Arab world and its belated reckoning with the consequences of decades of domestic misrule. The second is about Israel, and the policies it pursued in defiance of relentless international condemnation…READ MORE

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“As U.S.-Israel relations gear up for a great reset, the Obama administration’s parting shot may be the starting point for the Biden administration”

Posted on January 17, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
The changing of the guard in US-Israel relations
by Alex Traiman
January 20, 2021

Like many American policies now expected to undergo an about-face following the inauguration of 46th President Joe Biden, U.S.-Israel relations may be gearing up for a great reset…Yet today, with the changing of the guard, Israelis and many others in the region are concerned that the Biden administration may align much closer with the inflammatory views of [Rashida] Tlaib, as well as the policies of Obama, who sought to create “daylight” between Washington and Jerusalem, empower Iran, elevate the standing of the Palestinian Authority and isolate Israel in diplomatic forums…READ MORE

ALGEMEINER American Jews, Pro-Israel Organizations Salute US President Joe Biden on Inauguration Day US Jewish and pro-Israel organizations enthusiastically saluted Joe Biden on Wednesday as the Democratic leader was inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States. The statements and good wishes acknowledged that during a political career that has spanned almost half-a-century, Biden became a well-known and respected figure among American Jewish leaders and community groups.

JNS Biden nominees stress that US will not be rejoining Iran nuclear deal anytime soon U.S. Secretary of State nominee Tony Blinken said America should not lift terrorism sanctions on Tehran or unfreeze its assets in order for the Islamic Republic to come to the negotiating table. He also affirmed that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and that the U.S. embassy will stay put.

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